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The Douglas College Newsletter

A Matter

What do Leonard Cohen,
Robin Skelton and Miriam
Waddington have in
common? They’re all poets,
they’ re all Canadian, and they
were all part of a look into
the spiritual side of poetry
taken by English and Creative
Writing’s Susan McCaslin
during her 1996/97
Educational Leave.

A well-published poet herself,
McCaslin spent the last
academic year sifting through
contemporary Canadian
poetry dealing with the
theme of spirituality. The
result is anew anthology, A
Matter of Spirit: Recovery of
the Sacred in Contemporary
Canadian Poetry, to be
published by Ekstasis
Editions this spring.

Introduced and edited by
McCaslin, the book will
include the work of 18 poets
in total. Poetry selections are
followed by a short prose
piece or interview exploring
each poet’s unique religious
background or spiritual
orientation. “With this
anthology, I wanted to avoid
a superficial, eclectic
approach,” says McCaslin. “I

New Westminster Campus, David Lam Campus & Thomas Haney Centre

of Spirit

looked at entire bodies of
work, then selected 10 or 12
poems that I felt reflected the
poet’s particular spiritual
path.”

McCaslin’s background in
comparative mythologies and
special interest in Christian
esotericism served her well in

‘exploring a diverse selection

of poetry and belief systems.
“I made an effort to achieve
gender balance and to include
a wide variety of ethnic and
spiritual backgrounds,” she
says. “I also gathered poetry
that I loved, that moved me,
that was grounded in
everyday existence.”

McCaslin’s fascination with
spiritual questing led her to
explore the work of such
poets as Cohen, who has
layered Zen Buddhism into a
deep grounding in Judaism;
Skelton, who melded Wiccan
and Celtic beliefs with a
superb grasp of poetic form;
and Waddington, who blends
Hebrew tradition, Yiddish
folk tales and politics in a
profoundly healing process.
“Robin Skelton may have
been my most intriguing
interview,” says McCaslin,

March 1998

who first met the Victoria-
based mentor and arts
proponent in 1973. “It
certainly was one of his last
‘literary acts,’ as he died in
the spring of 1997.”

Other poets to be featured in
A Matter of Spirit include
Lorna Crozier (feminist

retelling of traditional biblical

stories, angelology), Daniel
David Moses (Iroquois,
Native traditions), Douglas
College’s own David Zieroth
(Germanic Lutheran
background, Goethe, Steiner,
personal integration and
transcendence), and many
more. Looking back at the
difficulty of making final
selections, McCaslin laments
that she’s already compiled
enough material for a second
anthology.

“T feel that many people are
questioning the dualistic split
between ‘matter’ and
‘spirit.’As one of our most
intense, direct and
unmediated forms of
expression, poetry will
continue to reflect this
growing longing for
exploration and synthesis.” ™

 

Lions and tigers and kids, oh my...

 

Douglas College Daycare kicked
off the new Lunar Year last
month with a rip-roaring
parade. To welcome in the Year
of the Tiger, many little arms
and legs (and some grown-up

ones!) snaked a bright red lion
made with lots of crepe paper,

glitter and egg-carton teeth

across the New Westminster
concourse. The Lunar
Calendar—the longest

chronological record in
history—dates from 2,600 BC,
when Emperor Huang Ti
introduced a 12-year
astrological cycle. The Year of
the Tiger, associated with
power, courage and bold new
ideas, started on January 28 of
the Western Calendar and will
continue until February 15,
1999. Chinese New Year
celebrations (popularly
recognized as the Spring
Festival) continue for 15 days,
and typically include activities
such as special meals, Hong
Bao (the distribution of red
money packets for luck) and the
Lion Dance.

@
IN

Douglas College

      

 

Susan McCaslin can be seen in a multi-media performance with
dancer Celeste Schroeder and sculptor David Robinson at the
opening of Erica Grimm-Vance's show Metaxu: Beauty is the
Beginning of Terror, to be held at the Amelia Douglas Gallery on
March 19 from 4-8pm.

Council Corner
by Meg Stainsby, Chair, Education Council

Got a pet policy peeve? Ever wanted to revamp, rescind,
reform, RETHINK an educational policy? Well, now’s your
chance... An ambitious project is underway at the College.
Last year, Susan Greathouse, with input from Carol Ebner,
began a policy-review project. While many of our policies are
fine, Carol and Susan catalogued a number of problems—gaps,
overlaps and curiosities. John McKendry tabled the report at
Education Council late last spring.

This term, Janet Allwork (English) has taken up the task.
Working with Council’s Education Policy Committee, Janet
has begun to sort through the lot. (Did you know we have four
policies governing the course outline development process?)
She will collapse, cut and co-ordinate. Then the Ed. Policy
group (chaired by Jean Cockburn of Learning Resources) will
hash through Janet’s work and forward recommendations to
Council; in turn, proposals will appear at the local level of
FECs/DECs (and other groups) for input. A myriad of
meetings later, we shall have the most stream-lined, sensical set
of policy books around. This is our hope.

To help in this quest for policy perfection, Janet, Jean and I
invite you to get involved. Send us your hit-list—preferred
language, new ordering, contentious content. Call us (Janet,
5295; Jean, 5184; Meg, 5384) or e-mail us today. While revision
will take precedence over creation for now, remember that
anyone in the College community is free to initiate policy
development, anytime. We'll keep a list of suggestions for
“Policy Project II: The Next Steps,” so send along new ideas
too.

The only things we don’t want to hear about are infractions. If
the problem is not with the policy but with enforcement, see
the friendly folks with the brass badges, please. ™

 

Quote of the Month

“A theatre you can’t laugh in is a theatre to be laughed at.”
Bertold Brecht