Where the Nights Are Twice as Long: Love Letters of Canadian Poets

by David Eso (Editor), Jeanette Lynes (Editor)

Overview

Under the covers of Where the Nights Are Twice as Long: Love Letters of Canadian Poets, David Eso and Jeanette Lynes collect letters and epistolary poems from more than 120 Canadian poets, including Pauline Johnson, Malcolm Lowry, Louis Riel, Alden Nowlan, Anne Szumigalski, Leonard Cohen, John Barton, and Di Brandt, and many others, encompassing the breadth of this country's English literary history.

Presented in order not of the chronology of composition, but according to the poets' ages at the time of writing, the poems in the book comprise a single lifeline. The reader follows an amalgam of the Poet from the passionate intensity of youth, through the regrets and satisfactions of adulthood and middle age, and into the reflective wisdom of old age.

All the writings are about love, but love in a dizzying array of colours, shapes, and sizes. Deep, enduring love, unrequited love, passionate love, violent love. Here are odes and lyric ecstasies, tirades and tantrums, pastoral comforts and abject horrors — all delivered with the vibrancy, wit, and erudition of our finest poets. Where the Nights Are Twice as Long is more than an anthology: it is an unforgettable journey into the long night of love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780864923844
Publisher:	Goose Lane Editions
Publication date:	02/03/2015
Pages:	430
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.13(d)

About the Author

David Eso's work as scholar, poet, anthologist, and impresario unites Canadian literary heritage with its impending renaissance. Eso has appeared in Filling Station, CV2, Strangers in Paris, Canadian Literature, Arc, Freefall, Vallum, Under the Mulberry Tree, the Globe and Mail, and on CBC. His chapbooks include Entries from My Affair with an Escape Artist (2003), A Wide Path to the Narrowing Future (2010) and Asiarific (2014). As a familiar face at literary readings across Canada, Charles Noble calls Eso "a force of nature and force of culture." Eso is currently a graduate student at the University of Calgary where he is studying the letters of Robert Kroetsch.

Jeanette Lynes is the author of six collections of poetry. Her most recent book of poems, Archive of the Undressed (2012), was shortlisted for two Saskatchewan Book Awards. Her previous poetry received the Bliss Carman Award and The New Quarterly's Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Award. Lynes' seventh book of poems, Bedlam Cowslip: The John Clare Poems is forthcoming from Wolsak and Wynn in 2015 under its Buckrider Books Imprint. Her first novel, The Factory Voice (2009) was long-listed for The Scotia Bank Giller Prize and a ReLit Award. She is the inaugural Coordinator of the MFA in Writing at the University of Saskatchewan.

Table of Contents

Preface David Eso 11

Introduction Jeanette Lynes 15

1 No Road Back to the Old Life: Poets in their Teens and Twenties

Malcolm Lowry to Carol Brown 23

Gwendolyn MacEwen to Milton Acorn 27

Robert Kroetsch to Martann 30

Gwendolyn MacEwen to Milton Acorn 34

A.M. Klein to Bessie Kozlov 35

Kai Cheng Thorn to 37

Chris Masson to "Moana" 38

A.J.M. Smith, What Strange Enchantment 39

Priscila Uppal to Christopher Doda 39

C. Isa Lausas and Tyson John Atkings 41

Archibald Lampman to Maud Emma Playter 49

Colin Morton to Mary Lee Bragg 52

Jack Garton to Jennifer Hammer 56

John Barton, Sixth Letter in Autumn 58

Robert Priest, Come to Me 61

Rhonda Batchelor to Charles Lillard 62

Raymond Souster, The Nest 61

Christopher Doda to Priscila Uppal 63

Shannon Webb-Campbell to 65

Bliss Carman to Maude Mosher 69

Ross Priddle to Shannon Kastor 70

Phyllis Webb, And in Our Time 75

P.K. Page to F.R. Scott 76

Dorothy Livesay to Duncan Macnair 85

Raymond Knister to Myrtle Gamble 90

E. Pauline Johnson, Close By 92

Myna Wallin to Richard 93

Robert Service to Constance MacLean 95

Roy Kiyooka to Monica Dealtry Barker 101

John Newlove to Susan Newlove 109

2 A Minute is Too Long: Poets in their Thirties

Brian Fawcett to Sharon Thesen 113

Robert Kroetsch to Jane Lewis 114

Tanya Evanson to the Beloved 115

Malcolm Lowry to Margerie Bonner 117

Penn Kemp, Dear Mentor/Tormentor 121

Gregory Betts to Lisa Frith 122

Robert Service to Constance MacLean 124

Fraser Sutherland, Here 125

Lindsay Zier-Vogel to Amelia Earhart 127

Frank Davey, The Tower 132

Stephen Pender to 133

David Helwig to Judy Yeo 134

Christian Bok, Vowels 135

Robert Service to Constance McLean 136

Charles Lillard, Roughing the Words 139

Ronna Bloom to Daniel Molloy 140

Brandon Marlon to 148

Richard Harrison to Lisa 148

Evelyn Lau, I Love You 152

Nathan Dueck to Sharon 153

Peter Trower to Jill Wright 155

Ivan E. Coyote to 161

Susan Musgrave and Stephen Reid 161

Shane Neilson to Janet Sunohara-Neilson 164

Andrew Suknaski, Vie Last Letter 166

Roo Borson, You Leave the City… 167

Derek Beaulieu to Kristen Ingram 168

Steve McCatfery, K as in Sleep 169

Alden Nowlan to Claudine Nowlan 170

Kim Maltman, Installation #67 171

Louis Riel to Marguerite Riel 172

Pearl Luke to Robert Hilles 173

Pearl Luke, What god hears in the privacy of our bedroom 174

bill bissett, from Pomes for Yoshi 175

Rocco de Giacomo, I Need You to Know 179

Miriam Waddington to Allan Donaldson 181

John Newlove to Susan Newlove 186

Pat Lowther, The Face 187

Marjorie Pickthall, Going Home 189

Judith Fitzgerald, Harmony of Moonlight 189

3 From the Bottom of My Spongiform Heart

Poets in their Forties

Vivian Hansen to Bruce 193

Jane Eaton Hamilton to Joy Masuhara 194

Louis Riel to Marguerite Riel 195

rob mclennan, Goldfish: studies in fine thread 199

Milton Acorn to Gwendolyn MacEwen 202

Malcolm Lowry to Margerie Bonner Lowry 203

Vivian Hansen to Angus 205

Louise Bak, Restlessness 208

JaneEaton Hamilton to Joy Masuhara 210

Fred Cogswell, Lost Dimension 210

Miriam Waddington to Allan Donaldson 211

Roy Kiyooka to Monica Dealtry Barker 212

Jane Eaton Hamilton to Joy Masuhara 214

Charles G.D. Roberts to Mary Fanton 214

Jeevan Bhagwat to Anna 216

Miriam Waddington to Allan Donaldson 216

Roy Kiyooka to Monica Dealtry Barker 219

Milton Acorn to Gwendolyn MacEwen 221

Jane Eaton Hamilton to Joy Masuhara 222

Robin Skelton, The language of love is impossible 222

Dennis Lee, Coming Becomes You 223

Ian Ferrier, Exile's Letter 224

Jeevan Bhagwat to Anna 227

George Elliott Clarke, À Geeta 228

Christine Lowther to 230

Steven Heighton, Breathe like this 231

Malcolm Lowry to Margerie Bonner Lowry 232

Robert Hilles to Pearl Luke 235

Fern G.Z. Carrto Al Carr (on his 60th birthday), Dear Al 236

Howard White, The Made Bed 236

Patrick Lane, Small Love Song 238

YVeyman Chan, Monologues and their Instruments of Torture 238

R.C. Weslowski, It's Good to Be Here 241

Frederick Philip Grove to Catherine Grove 244

Robert Hilles to Pearl Luke 246

Robert Hilles, Beloved 247

Elizabeth Rainer and Michael Blouin 248

Betsy Warland and Daphne Marlatt 255

4 Hiring Omniscient Narrators: Poets in their Fifties

Brian Fawcett to Sharon Thesen 267

Roy Kiyooka to Daphne Marlatt 268

Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Aftermath 269

Di Brandt, Song for a divorce 276

Mark Sinnett, Art History 281

Jennifer Londry to 282

William Wilfred Campbell to Mary DeBelle 285

John Glassco to Elma Koolmer 286

Bliss Carman to Gladys Baldwin 292

Ken Norris, Funny Valentine 292

Irving Layton to Aviva Layton 294

Elizabeth Brewster, Chill 295

Bliss Carman to Gladys Baldwin 295

Irving Layton to Aviva Layton 299

Irving Layton, Mystery 300

Barry Dempster, Come Live with Me 301

Richard Harrison to Lisa 302

Ronald Everson, Cold Weather Love 303

Heather Haley to John 303

John-, His Reply to Her Lawyer 304

Susan Musgrave to Stephen Reid 317

Gerald Hill to K. 322

Roy Kiyooka to Daphne Marlatt 323

David Bateman, letter to a former lover from a young drag queen on the threshold of manhood 325

Bruce Whiteman to Kelly M. 329

Katherine Lawrence to Randy Burton 330

Jane Eaton Hamilton and Julia Balén 331

5 I Promise Not to Philosophize: Poets in their Sixties, Seventies, and Beyond

Susan Musgrave to Stephen Reid 339

Bliss Carman to Kate Eastman 340

Bill Howell, Local Subtext 342

Thomas Dilworth, Neither Apple Trees 342

Lorna Crozier, Getting Used to It 344

Lillian Allen to Jay 344

Anne Szumigalski, Desire 345

James Deahl to Norma West Linder 346

Charles G.D. Roberts to Constance Davies Woodrow 348

Irving Layton to Sandra Beaudin 350

Steven Ross Smith, Rush: Coral Bracho 352

Bliss Carman to Margaret Lawrence 354

Dave Margoshes, Polar exploration 357

Earle Birney to Esther Birney 358

Louis Dudek, Love Words 359

Henry Rappaport, Make Dead 360

Duncan Campbell Scott to Miss Elise Aylen 361

Elizabeth Greene, Per Aspera ad Astra 363

Earle Birney to Esther Birney 364

Irving Layton to Harriet Bernstein 366

Linda Rogers, Anniversary Letter to the Passerine Who 368

Richard Outram, Late Love Poem 373

Earle Birney to Wailan Low 374

Leonard Cohen, Vie Mist of Pornography 378

Anne Marriott, July 9 381

Earle Birney to Wailan Low 382

Joe Rosenblatt, Phantom Dog 385

George Bowering, from Knot of Light 385

Douglas LePan, Flames, at the Beginning 388

Al Purdy, To 388

Charles G.D. Roberts to Joan Montgomery 389

George Woodcock, A Ma Belle Laide 391

Index of Poets and Çorrespondents 393

Çontributors and Çredits 397

Editors 429

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Here is a wild map, from incandescent sparks to considered glow, of love's landscape in Canadian poetry. David Eso and Jeanette Lynes have put together something outside the ordinary." — Daphne Marlatt

"This is a Canada we haven't seen before. Romantic, intimate, a valentine shaped like a maple leaf designed for lovers of Canadian literature and its oh-so-human practitioners." — Lorna Crozier

"an amayzing galaktik compilaysyun all brillyant poets all brillyant passyuns evree nuans evree change n trope uv all th loves ium sew happee a b in ths byond brillyant book." — bill bissett

Editorial Reviews

02/23/2015
Eso and Lynes, both poets themselves, have compiled an innovative if not entirely satisfying anthology of love letters and epistolary poems written by 130 Canadian poets. The letters are arranged according to the poet's age at the time of composition, which provides some interesting food for thought throughout the collection as readers can compare and contrast writing mediums (paper letter vs. text message) and styles of various generations. In addition, it shows how attitudes towards love and courtship have changed over time and how these attitudes change with age. However, this ordering also fragments the love affairs of individual poets, preventing the reader from focusing on any single romantic narrative. Eso and Lynes could have ameliorated this fragmentation by including annotations for the letters or introductions for the poets, but they choose to allow the letters to "speak for themselves" even when some have little to say. Although there is still much beauty to be found in letters that tell intimate, honest, and creative stories, the compilation loses its way among the practical details imposed by its arrangement. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Part of the appeal of Eso's and Lynes's anthology is that the lover's discourse is revealed as tricky and duplicitous. At once mythic and collective, it is also intimate and particular, directed not to an imaginary world of readers and writers but to a certain somebody, an often unnamed but nevertheless profoundly known beloved."

Literary Review of Canada

"Here is a wild map, from incandescent sparks to considered glow, of love's landscape in Canadian poetry. David Eso and Jeanette Lynes have put together something outside the ordinary."

Daphne Marlatt

"This is a Canada we haven't seen before. Romantic, intimate, a valentine shaped like a maple leaf designed for lovers of Canadian literature and its oh-so-human practitioners."

Lorna Crozier

"The editors of Where the Nights Are Twice as Long have organized the letters (and occasional love poems) according to the writer's age at the time of composition. The results reveal much about the evolution (and disintegration) of our passions as they are worn down or deepened over time.#"

Toronto Star

"an amayzing galaktik compilaysyun all brillyant poets all brillyant passyuns evree nuans evree change n trope uv all th loves ium sew happee a b in ths byond brillyant book."

Bill Bissett

"[T]he new book proves that while some things change — using email to send letters rather than paper — the joy, and sometimes pain, of love is constant."

On Campus News

" As the letters, poems, emails and texts in this collection are grouped according to the age of the poets at the time of writing, poets and their eras collide. And what grand collisions they are. The book is rich in loss and endings, longevity and, no matter what the age, erotic and sometimes erratic explorations in the realm of love."

Vancouver Sun

"At times beautiful, at times rueful, Where the Nights Are Twice as Long is a collection of letters written by Canadian poets to those they loved. The result is a diverse portrait of the life cycle of a romantic relationship, from the first infatuation to I-still-can't-forget-you melancholy."

CBC Books

&#With obvious diligence, the editors have solicited, collected, or dug up love letters by 129 English Canadian poets."

Quill & Quire

"The love letter is not dead, just different, a new book proves."

Star Phoenix

"At times beautiful, at times rueful, Where the Nights Are Twice as Long is a collection of letters written by Canadian poets to those they loved. The result is a diverse portrait of the life cycle of a romantic relationship, from the first infatuation to I-still-can't-forget-you melancholy."

"The love letter is not dead, just different, a new book proves."

"The editors of Where the Nights Are Twice as Long have organized the letters (and occasional love poems) according to the writer's age at the time of composition. The results reveal much about the evolution (and disintegration) of our passions as they are worn down or deepened over time.#"

"[T]he new book proves that while some things change — using email to send letters rather than paper — the joy, and sometimes pain, of love is constant."

&#With obvious diligence, the editors have solicited, collected, or dug up love letters by 129 English Canadian poets."

" As the letters, poems, emails and texts in this collection are grouped according to the age of the poets at the time of writing, poets and their eras collide. And what grand collisions they are. The book is rich in loss and endings, longevity and, no matter what the age, erotic and sometimes erratic explorations in the realm of love."

"Part of the appeal of Eso's and Lynes's anthology is that the lover's discourse is revealed as tricky and duplicitous. At once mythic and collective, it is also intimate and particular, directed not to an imaginary world of readers and writers but to a certain somebody, an often unnamed but nevertheless profoundly known beloved."

"Here is a wild map, from incandescent sparks to considered glow, of love's landscape in Canadian poetry. David Eso and Jeanette Lynes have put together something outside the ordinary."

"an amayzing galaktik compilaysyun all brillyant poets all brillyant passyuns evree nuans evree change n trope uv all th loves ium sew happee a b in ths byond brillyant book."

"This is a Canada we haven't seen before. Romantic, intimate, a valentine shaped like a maple leaf designed for lovers of Canadian literature and its oh-so-human practitioners."

From the Publisher

"The love letter is not dead, just different, a new book proves."

The Star Phoenix