John Terpstra, a Governor General Award nominee for poetry, is the latest author to have his work commemorated by Project Bookmark Canada. His poem "Giants" from the book Two or Three Guitars (published by Gaspereau Press) will be unveiled today in Hamilton's Sam Lawrence Park as part of Ontario: Read It Here.
The Ontario: Read It Here team talked with John before the launch about the best places in Ontario for reading and writing, creative challenges and why Hamilton is so ubiquitous in his writing.
When did you write "Giants"? How long did it take?
I wrote "Giants" while in the thick of writing a non-fiction work, called Falling into Place, about Hamilton. It was one of those rare poems that came out more or less whole--at least that is how I remember it.
What inspired it?
The poem was inspired by the geography and landscape of this Hamilton area; by a sense of play, and my own sense of smallness in relation to the earth; and by the response of a ninety-seven year old woman to my question asking her how she felt about living on the shore of Cootes Paradise, which is a marsh in the city that she and her husband lived beside for thirty years, when that was still possible. The last lines of the poem are her paraphrased words.
What does Hamilton mean to you?
It's my home. It has one of the most interesting and livable geographical locations I have ever seen. It has very little glamour--which I consider an asset. It has a lot of people who do not make such a lot of money--which I also consider an asset. It sometimes seems willing to sell its soul for the next project or development—which drives me crazy.
Why did you choose it for this poem?
I didn’t: the poem chose the city.
What is your favourite place to write in Ontario?
One of the four locations in my home and yard where there is a strategically placed empty chair.
What is your favourite place to read in Ontario?
I read once at a literary festival in Elora, where the audience was with me, and responsive, almost from the very first lines that I read. It was a little bit of writer’s heaven.
Other than your own, what poem do you most closely associate with a place in this province?
Perhaps not even an entire poem but simply the phrase “the scrape of previous canoes”, which is in a poem by Michael Ondaatje, conjures up this province most strongly for me via the marks left on the rocks at the shoreline by other travellers of our evocative Algonquin lakes.
Is there a book and/or poem that you feel really defines Ontario for you?
I recently read Looking for Old Ontario, by Thomas McIlwraith. It doesn’t exactly define Ontario, but describes the physical relationship that people have had with this landscape in terms of the houses, barns, fences, etc., that have been built over the decades. I also really like that old treasure, The Bruce Beckons, by W. Sherwood Fox.
What were your greatest challenges in writing this poem?
The greatest challenge for me would have been to get it right; to get my feeling for this place down in one shot. To write a poem that people who don’t like poetry would like.
On the Bookmark, you're quoted as saying that Hamilton "gets into your head." What is it about this city that keeps you there and that keeps you returning to it in your writing as well?
Whoa. Why do I keep returning to it in my writing? Better ask why it keeps returning to me. I don’t actively choose Hamilton as a subject. It won’t leave me alone. There is something about this particular physical setting—the urban as well as the natural geography—that has me by the scruff of the neck.
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