酷我-北美枫

[ericcoliu]

Reading, Writing, and Life on the Page

Winter Epigrams

In her recent work of creative non-fiction entitled A Map to the Door of No Return (2001), Dionne Brand meditates profoundly on and is deeply concerned with the representation of Black people in the diasporas as presented fragments of travel narrative, autobiography, poetry, memory, history, newspaper clippings and intertextual references:


"So far I’ve collected these fragments, like Ludolf – disparate, and sometimes only related by sound or intuition, vision or aesthetic. I have not visited the Door of No Return, but by relying on random shards of history and unwritten memoir of descendants of those who passed through it, including me, I am constructing a map of the region, paying attention to faces, to the unknowable, to unintended acts of returning, to impressions of doorways. Any act of recollection is important, even looks of dismay and discomfort. Any wisp of a dream is evidence." (p. 19)

After having practised English writing for two years and more importantly, being inspired by Dionne Brand’s work of and insights into diaspora literature, I, at the turn of the year, have decided to launch my English Writing Project entitled Reading, Writing, Life on the Page, which, I hope, will explore my exilic life, reflect on my reading of literary works, meditates on the art and craft of English writing, and examine the always complex relationship between life and writing.


What follows is my first piece of writing entitled Winter Epigrams:


Today is supposed to mark the official beginning of winter. However, last Sunday, the Canadian winter had always hit its inhabitants in all its fury, packing a punch that closed an international airport, shut down some of schools and left commuters with a white-knuckle drive on major highways and city streets. For people, who immigrated from tropical or subtropical areas, and who want to survive the hostility of winter,

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow[.] 1

Up to this stage of my immigrant life here, I have failed to cultivate a “mind of winter” because

In the beginning
I thrash[ed]
But Now
Against the walls of winter
Unable to sleep through the world 2

And also because I has become trapped within

Deep snowbound years
Of separation 3

I am weary of all winters mother
Winter within, winter without 4

Like Goodison, in her poems entitled Winter Epigrams, Dionne Brand refers to the Canadian winter acts as a hostile place; she exposes the brutalities of racism perpetuated, in past and present, by the white “civilized” world. She devalorizes the “beauty of the Canadian winter,” employing the season as a metaphor for Toronto’s frigid response to Black immigrants, who persist in “rooting their gardens/looking for green leaves.” 5 Winter Epigrams consists of sarcastic, lyrical, and keen epigrams that confront the most insistent season - winter - in all its moods. They are a reaction to that most deterministic reality by a writer nurtured in sunshine and transplanted to the cold North, containing some spirited diatribes against the Canadian winter:


cold is cold is
cold is cold is
not skiing
or any foolhardiness in snow.
……
I give you these epigrams, Toronto,
these winter fragments
these stark white papers
because you mothered me
because you held me with the distance that i expected,
here, my mittens,
here, my frozen body,
……
i give you winter epigrams
because you are a liar,
there is no other season here. 6

In the works of contemporary Canadian Caribbean women poets, winter becomes a metaphor for all that Canada is not: warm, comfortable, and fertile. As for me now, “there is other season here.” The cold, whiteness of Canada makes me become “bleached / by nostalgia 7: yellow in / exile.” 8


Notes

1 The Snow Man written by Wallace Stevens.
2 Of Iron, Bars and Cages written by Claire Harris.
3 En Route written by Claire Harris
4 I Am Weary of All Winters Mother written Lorna Goodison.
5 Winter Epigrams written by Dionne Brand.
6 Winter Epigrams written by Dionne Brand.
7 En Route written by Claire Harris
8 August written by Claire Harris.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Reading, Writing, and Life on the Page

Winter Epigrams

In her recent work of creative non-fiction entitled A Map to the Door of No Return (2001), Dionne Brand meditates profoundly on and is deeply concerned with the representation of Black people in the diasporas as presented fragments of travel narrative, autobiography, poetry, memory, history, newspaper clippings and intertextual references:


"So far I’ve collected these fragments, like Ludolf – disparate, and sometimes only related by sound or intuition, vision or aesthetic. I have not visited the Door of No Return, but by relying on random shards of history and unwritten memoir of descendants of those who passed through it, including me, I am constructing a map of the region, paying attention to faces, to the unknowable, to unintended acts of returning, to impressions of doorways. Any act of recollection is important, even looks of dismay and discomfort. Any wisp of a dream is evidence." (p. 19)

After having practised English writing for two years and more importantly, being inspired by Dionne Brand’s work of and insights into diaspora literature, I, at the turn of the year, have decided to launch my English Writing Project entitled Reading, Writing, Life on the Page, which, I hope, will explore my exilic life, reflect on my reading of literary works, meditates on the art and craft of English writing, and examine the always complex relationship between life and writing.


What follows is my first piece of writing entitled Winter Epigrams:


Today is supposed to mark the official beginning of winter. However, last Sunday, the Canadian winter had always hit its inhabitants in all its fury, packing a punch that closed an international airport, shut down some of schools and left commuters with a white-knuckle drive on major highways and city streets. For people, who immigrated from tropical or subtropical areas, and who want to survive the hostility of winter,

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow[.] 1

Up to this stage of my immigrant life here, I have failed to cultivate a “mind of winter” because

In the beginning
I thrash[ed]
But Now
Against the walls of winter
Unable to sleep through the world 2

And also because I has become trapped within

Deep snowbound years
Of separation 3

I am weary of all winters mother
Winter within, winter without 4

Like Goodison, in her poems entitled Winter Epigrams, Dionne Brand refers to the Canadian winter acts as a hostile place; she exposes the brutalities of racism perpetuated, in past and present, by the white “civilized” world. She devalorizes the “beauty of the Canadian winter,” employing the season as a metaphor for Toronto’s frigid response to Black immigrants, who persist in “rooting their gardens/looking for green leaves.” 5 Winter Epigrams consists of sarcastic, lyrical, and keen epigrams that confront the most insistent season - winter - in all its moods. They are a reaction to that most deterministic reality by a writer nurtured in sunshine and transplanted to the cold North, containing some spirited diatribes against the Canadian winter:


cold is cold is
cold is cold is
not skiing
or any foolhardiness in snow.
……
I give you these epigrams, Toronto,
these winter fragments
these stark white papers
because you mothered me
because you held me with the distance that i expected,
here, my mittens,
here, my frozen body,
……
i give you winter epigrams
because you are a liar,
there is no other season here. 6

In the works of contemporary Canadian Caribbean women poets, winter becomes a metaphor for all that Canada is not: warm, comfortable, and fertile. As for me now, “there is other season here.” The cold, whiteness of Canada makes me become “bleached / by nostalgia 7: yellow in / exile.” 8


Notes

1 The Snow Man written by Wallace Stevens.
2 Of Iron, Bars and Cages written by Claire Harris.
3 En Route written by Claire Harris
4 I Am Weary of All Winters Mother written Lorna Goodison.
5 Winter Epigrams written by Dionne Brand.
6 Winter Epigrams written by Dionne Brand.
7 En Route written by Claire Harris
8 August written by Claire Harris.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[ericcoliu]

Up until the Second World War, Canada has a strict hierarchy of preferred racial groups for immigration. This immigration policy drew upon an "environmental racism" similar to the Canada First movement, excluding Blacks and Asians on the grounds that they were unsuited to the cold climate of Canada. The notion of "climatic unsuitability" was enshrined in immigration law as a reason for barring non-whites until 1953.

Since significant immigration policy reform, which adopted a merit-based point system as its mechanism for granting permanent residence status regardless of race, religion and ethnicity, was made in the 1960s, it’s ironic to see that, , in the works of contemporary Canadian Caribbean women poets, the cold climate of Canada makes non-whites become “bleached / by nostalgia; yellow in / exile,” supporting the arguments of "climatic unsuitability" for non-whites.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Up until the Second World War, Canada has a strict hierarchy of preferred racial groups for immigration. This immigration policy drew upon an "environmental racism" similar to the Canada First movement, excluding Blacks and Asians on the grounds that they were unsuited to the cold climate of Canada. The notion of "climatic unsuitability" was enshrined in immigration law as a reason for barring non-whites until 1953.

Since significant immigration policy reform, which adopted a merit-based point system as its mechanism for granting permanent residence status regardless of race, religion and ethnicity, was made in the 1960s, it’s ironic to see that, , in the works of contemporary Canadian Caribbean women poets, the cold climate of Canada makes non-whites become “bleached / by nostalgia; yellow in / exile,” supporting the arguments of "climatic unsuitability" for non-whites.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

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