The words of Whitby poet Joe Cummings
Joe Cummings
Photo by Jason Chow
East of the City met up with long-time Durham resident and critically acclaimed poet, Joe Cummings, at the Whitby Library to talk about how falling in love with literature is downright intoxicating.
There are few things in the human experience more significant to our lives than words – they have the power to console, cajole, annihilate, obfuscate, build us up or tear us down. The words of the poets and writers we love weave our experiences together. Recording the times we live in they reach down into the depths of our collective consciousness and help us make sense of our own corners of the Universe.
April is National Poetry Month. It’s the largest celebration of the written word in the world. Poetry lovers take part to mark its importance in culture. East met up with long-time Durham resident and critically acclaimed poet, Joe Cummings, at the Whitby Library to talk about how falling in love with literature is downright intoxicating, “This is a month to give poetry lovers a public platform and, hopefully, their enthusiasm will prove infectious.”
As the library’s towering windows cast a luminous light throughout, Cummings beams, “You walk into this magnificent building, and it’s the most impressive public space in all of Durham. But that’s only 20 per cent of the equation the rest is made up of community, all the people here for different reasons, the books, I love the energy in this space.”
“And I understand how he feels. I understand desire. It’s the heart’s first draft. It’s a form of nudity.” ~Excerpt from Bright Light by Joe Cummings
Psychologist Alison Gopnik said, “Trying to understand human nature is part of our human nature.” Cummings writes stories about what makes people tick. Former Canadian Poet Laureate, John Steffler, said Cummings’s work, “finds beauty and mystery in our estranged, compulsive lives.” Author Barbara Gowdy called his prose, “lucid and spare, his vision unfailingly compassionate.” This is the perfect word to describe Cummings – his deep empathy and regard for people is unmistakable, but he says, “We all have compassion. It comes in different forms and at different times – when you’re writing you have to have your eyes on the world around you – what people are doing – that can be mistaken as compassion – for me, it’s about being curious every day.”
This inquisitiveness is evident throughout his first book of poetry, Threats and Gossip, which earned high praise in literary circles. He writes about everyday people, men, women, children, documenting the most mundane, awkward, disturbing, tragic, and sacred events of their lives – From In The Morning’s shame - filled night of drunkenness to the haunting stories in Girl With a Gun and Suicide – its characters teetering on the brink of disaster.
Drawing inspiration from beloved wordsmiths like T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Irving Layton, Michael Ondaatje, and Leonard Cohen, Cummings says, “Writing allows the reader to look straight into the author’s thoughts, and while you’re there, there’s a magical connection that blooms inside you. I want to affect that kind of power.”
There is something sacrosanct about the process of writing, Cummings says, “Think about it, it’s like any craft – a carpenter, a mechanic – your hands are transforming something, and there’s pride in that – it’s something you’ve created. For a writer, you sit before a blank page, and then suddenly through your blood, sweat and tears, you create something. It’s magnificent. Go out in the world and add your voice! And whether you’re good or not, at the end of the day you’re trying to satisfy yourself.”
In the Digital Age there are a lot more voices vying to be heard, and Cummings believes popular culture in television and publishing is undergoing a renaissance, he says, “The Internet has changed things – but one thing that will never change is the need for good stories. Everybody has been touched by great writing, books, films and TV, but it all starts with a script. The only question now is on what platform will people choose to get those stories?”
Still, while the Internet has widened artists’ ability to disseminate their work, Cummings says the arts are grossly underfunded in Canada, “I don’t think people appreciate the role the arts play in our life. It’s not always something that can be tangibly measured and this opens a dollars and cents funding argument that the artist, invariably, struggles to win. How do you measure the importance of Gordon Lightfoot, Alice Munro, Alex Colville, the Tragically Hip or Drake? You have to ask yourself if these people were worth helping at some point in their careers, because in some way, large or small, they all were, and we are now benefiting because they help put a face to our culture and to our country.”
For the past 15 years, Cummings has worked in the national radio newsroom at the CBC where he landed after years of slogging it out in smaller markets. It’s difficult not to ask his take as an insider about the recent scandals that have hit the Canadian broadcaster lately, none more prominent than the sex abuse allegations of former Q Radio host, Jian Ghomeshi. Cummings pauses and says, “It took the wind out of a lot of people. CBC took a hard hit on that one. That kind of behaviour is not a new phenomenon, it happens everywhere, but it’s good we’re talking about it more. As Obama would say it’s, ‘a learning moment’ for every corporation – how we deal with men when they act inappropriately – no matter what level they’re at. At the end of the day, a lot of people can look at this and say we won’t put up with this.”
Along with the scandal is the seemingly never-ending budget cuts which lately seem to include regular rounds of job cuts, and the ever-present threat that the public broadcaster will eventually die a slow death. Sombre, Cummings says, “The cuts, combined with the Ghomeshi scandal have really shaken the core of morale.”
While he is circumspect speaking about the CBC, he says there’s no other broadcaster in Canada telling Canadian stories about Canadian people, “we need the CBC – even as we struggle within to find our footing in the evolving digital marketplace, we understand what we mean and should mean to Canadian culture.”
No matter what, Joe Cummings will be writing long after he finishes working at the CBC. Sitting in the Science Fiction section of the library, I read him a quote from British Punk Poet John Cooper Clarke, “Poetry is not something you have to retire from.” Cummings lets out a hearty laugh, “Ah that’s beautiful – I love that!”
His art is about his personal truth, “It doesn’t matter how good the work is – what matters is creating. There are two types of artists – those who suffer and bleed out their work and that’s fine – it’s their truth – but there are also those who just love the work and do it.
Everybody suffers. We are all struggling with who we are, what we are, and why we are. We’re all insecure too, but that’s what art does – it shines a light on our problems. Don’t go to a psychiatrist, read a good book and you’re going to see all your problems reflected back at you, and then you’ll be able to articulate what’s happening inside you.”
The best artists reveal themselves in their art: “I’m not trying to send out anything but me. Whether it’s good or not is for someone else to decide, but you will always get satisfaction from the honesty and truth of your art.”
Cummings’s timeless round specs are more John Lennon than Harry Potter. When I ask him how old he is, he bends his head slightly as if to think really hard about it, “I am 50. Wait. Who’s 50? I can’t be 50 – that’s somebody else. 50 is an absurd thing.”
Long live the poets of our hearts!
