Herménégilde Chiasson

HHerménégilde Chiasson is currently working on 15 books. He described himself as never having a fear of the blank page. Once he could read and write, he wanted to keep moving and exploring. He remembers the day he became literate and described how he read from the newspaper to his illiterate mom, deciphering the images of sound. He contextualized himself in Acadie where the population is 1/3 French and 2/3 English. The first books in Acadian were only in the 1970s. The population is centuries old although everything was in the oral register, in prayers, songs and storytelling. He feels this influences how his poetry sounds, drawing on this oral tradition. It’s noted that his French is Acadian French, but deliberately plain-languaged as well to reach as many people as possible.
Chiasson, Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick wears many hats as artist, thinker, citizen and philosopher. He seems tireless in working for decades in many directions. He was asked how he knows when to stop anything? He answered “to stop is part of the process as well – the energy is redirected some place else.”
He finds he works best under constraint. Complete open form is too open. One of the series he is working on is a long form acrostic. He has taken his unusual first name, Herménégilde, and assigned each letter to a month and to each letter a theme. For example, H is for Histoire (history). In January he wrote a book of poems around the theme of history. He only wrote it inside of January. Each book has a particular form.
This month is the 10th letter of his name, L to which he has assigned the theme of Lectures (reading) and that will be the focus of all the poems, tied in some way to the month.
Similarly he has a solstice manuscript which he only adds to or writes in during the solstice. Another themed book is a variation on Dante’s 3 levels as hell as getting funding from Telefilm Canada as someone from the 1 million French-speaking Canadians who live outside the governing bodies in Quebec. He also is working on a book of essays on visual art.

In the capacity as a poet, he is most recently the author of Beatitudes, a sort of expansion of the biblical beatitudes in a incantatory language that pays tribute to the profound beauty of everyday moments.
He is pictured above (on left) at International Writers Fest October 19 with Wayne Grady (right), translator of one of Chiasson’s previous books, Available Light. Grady has dozens of works published himself. The English edition translator, Joanne Elder, was also present for this Goose Lane Editions book launch on the day of its official release. She expressed pleasure in hearing Chiasson read her/their words. He read in English and in French.
Chiasson remarked that what he has long admired about the English language is how it transcends. In French you must specify gender, must use two forms of politeness (tu and vous) but English scrapes this away. It adds an appropriate universality in translation which he didn’t have as an option writing in French.
His previous book is a book of conversations distilled down to one line. He said any one could have expanded out to an entire book to itself. A second book he described at the book of actions, like a treatise on anthropology. The third was a book of objects where he gave each of about 500 objects about 5 lines each.
The first shape of the concept for this Beattitudes book, he said, was a book listing beauty, but he found that this needs direct experience, not explanation thru words. He next undertook the concept as a book of praise. The ultimate form became the Beatitudes, his forth published book of lists poems. The Beatitudes is a list poem with the rhythm of poems to all those who Chiasson hopes will go to heaven, for examples,
“those of you who tug to make their skirt longs”,
“those who believe paradise is already on earth”,
“those who chop vegetables”
“those who file their pathetic and shattered lives in grey filing cabinets”
“those who feed animals and makes sure each receives a fair portion”, and
“those who iron”
He is hoping to cover everyone. Funnily enough the emotion of the words came thru moving me in the French more than the English. Poetry that passeth all understanding.
I related his goals of writing, one of which was to balance the dissemination of history with the need and duty to generate beauty, for its own sake and as an antidote to despair, depression and obedience to those forces towards inaction. If there is a mantra that runs thru he said it is the notions of generosity and courage among the things which no one notices but which are essential.
He has a worldview that the host described as monoism. Chiasson agreed. The divide between anything is illusionary. We are a product of our environment but also we are our environment and have a responsibility to make what we want.
We have violence and pollution and injustice. He feels if we realize and experience beauty we will be naturally drawn to protect the opposite, be genuinely contrite, sincerely deeply change. It creates more of the same to reflect in art the destructive trends. He said that in the Romantic era we acquired the idea that we could generate or fuel fear to make change. We have to reverse that idea. We need to communicate our world and protect each other but how we do it is key.
This all sounds sound to me. To respond in anger is to add to the negativity we want to dispel. A path of unity is peace is not an easy one. The fast gut response of react against is the easy path.
In the face of wrong, we can always denounce but we must choose our forum wisely. If we retain injustice until one is in a place where one can be heard, the yell will not be lost.
He feels we need to move poetry that moves us towards order and give back to ourselves and to others consciousness of connection, awareness of small beauties, the things that make us aware that we are alive, the things we don’t notice, but which are essential for us.