Canada’s poet laureate would love to be asked to write another poem

A recent story about Canada's Parliamentary Poet Laureate has raised a handful of intriguing questions, not the least of which is: Canada has a poet laureate?

Yes, indeed. Part of Canada's commitment to the arts is to keep a poet on retainer, paying him or her an annual stipend of $20,000 plus travel expenses to be available to write poetry for important occasions, advise the Parliamentary Librarian and sponsor poetry readings.

The Parliamentary Poet Laureate holds two year terms, at which time (such as now) nominations are accepted for candidates for the next term.

The current poet laureate is Saskatchewan's Fred Wah, who recently opined his workload was pretty light and that he desired for the government to have more work for him.

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Postmedia News reports that Wah has written exactly one poem on behalf of the Government of Canada during his two years in the position – a piece commemorating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, which he says was "mediocre."

In exchange for a two-year stipend of $40,000, you'd hope the poem would be better than mediocre.

“I wish that my government had asked me to write poetry about immigration policy, about Idle No More, about Canada’s complicity in the Middle East, the Enbridge pipeline,” Wah told a recent Edmonton literary festival, according to Postmedia's Randy Boswell. “I haven’t been asked to do any of those things.”

Wah's duties as Parliamentary Poet Laureate don't stop him from writing his own poetry, and anything he writes at the request of the government remains his intellectual property.

So it's not necessarily a matter of being censored by those in the government. It's just a matter of being used by them.

Poet laureates aren't just intended to write poetry at the request of parliament. George Bowering, Canada's first poet laureate, declined all but one request to write commemorative poetry.

They are generally intended to act as a cultural ambassador, to expound on the value of the arts in their own way. Wah's appearance at the Edmonton literary festival, for example, would fit that purview.

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Some readers have probably reached this point, and are still stuck on the math: $40,000 and he's only written one poem. They wouldn't be alone.

In 2003, one year after the position was created, Bowering was called to the House of Commons and faced questions from the Canadian Alliance and Bloc Quebecois about his per-poem cost.

“If a country has a poet laureate it suggests that they aren’t only interested in things like tarsands but are interested in culture and spirit — the things poets are supposed to be in charge of,” Bowering told the Ottawa Citizen earlier this year. “It’s worthwhile and doesn’t cost about as much as a screw on an FO186 or whatever that airplane is called.”

For his part, Wah says he is open to writing more commemorative poetry during his time as Parliamentary Poet Laureate. He’s just waiting for the call.

Here, by the by, is The Snowflake Age, Wah’s poem commemorating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.