2006 Félix-Antoine-Savard Poetry Prize
The jury, comprised of the poets David Bergeron, Carl Lacharité, and the Chair, Anne Peyrouse, have decided to award the 2006 Félix-Antoine-Savard Poetry Prize to Raôul Duguay for his poetic sequence entitled Or je suis d'ici published in the literary magazine Moebius (issue #106)
Certainly, Raôul Duguay with his «Or je suis d'ici» carries us without even having to read the magazine piece, by simply closing our eyes, by listening to the poet's remembered song of his native Abitibi, otherwise known through his own crude play of words, as la Bittt à Tibi. I am from here, it says, so simple, so close to the individual, and it is meaningful because from this individual a whole vast universe emerges like any «country that never seems to stop being born», like Man who « doesn't stop making sounds with his trumpet to give him the impression that he is an echo of this world. » Duguay's poetic verses dare to express love, tenderness, outrage, nostalgia, desire, hope and an « open casket of dispair. »
One might ask whether But Where Did the Northern Lights Go? is a poem of hope or despair. From its very first lines, what is remarkable is the contrast between the « here » and the « elsewhere », between what is truly real or traditional and what is poetic. Duguay's work delights readers because what often begins as a disturbing and depressing image ends up becoming inspirational and reconciliatory. The morbid becomes a poetic illumination. Even Hell is paved with beauty, as exemplified in this verse :
« J'entends encore et encore driller la mitraille
des milliers de chenilles aux dents d'acier
Mon coeur bâton de dynamite faisant éclater
les tripes de la terre »
Similarly, in this dramatic crucifixion, beautiful and moving nonetheless, we glimpse a tender moment of Truth :
« je m'empanache la tête de toutes les épines
des conifères décimés jusqu'à la toundra »
The individual glance on the collective shatters and transcends. Which opens the door to survival. Which lightens a Being's heavy load. Which allows for creative entry, one that is new and free :
« Je vrille le vilebrequin d'acier dans la chair de la terre
pour en extirper des carottes des carottes de terre
et dans chacune un rêve d'or
pour mettre au monde un vaste pays
la liberté vaut son pesant d'or »
The poet also reminds us that poetry begs that it be embraced the minute a human being is born— gently urging him to contemplate the boreal sky or the mysterious woodland secrets. The future is only possible by holding on to our dreams in spite of the « black spruce of despair » and the « roaring hive of progress » :
« Je suis d'un pays qui m'a vu naître
et qu'en chacun de mes mots je fais naître
Je suis d'une vallée où les larmes et les cris
ont ici et maintenant la couleur de l'or »
Duguay's evocative poetry of the land, created through a sound and music that makes its own harmony, is the well-spring of the forest and a dire warning against the global world. It is a reminder that we, too, are « from here and elsewhere. »
The jury commended Duguay on how, through a revolutionary poetic language, he allows readers to experience the sadness of this life, and how the tenderness and love he feels for the country explodes in every real detail of it, reminding us, always, of its potential. And because humour and irony are always compelling poetic devices at the kitchen table. As his mother once pointed out:
« Raôul for you to become a poet
I eat my alphabet soup every day
Poems rush through my blood
And they rush through yours, too. »
Enjoy your soup and be sure to savour each and every letter !
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Information : Maryse Baribeau, Managing Director
International Poetry Festival
Telephone : (819) 379-9813
E-mail : mbaribeau@fiptr.com
Web site: www.fiptr.com
