Words from the editor

Welcome to “Rising Stars.” Here we are at the time of year when spring has sprung and poetry, along with plenty of other fine foliage, is in full bloom. Spring-almost-summer is also the time when evenings are warm enough to stay outside and scour the deep blue-black of the night sky to savour the billion pinpricks of light that have inspired generations of poets.

As I do for most issues, I researched the origins of the theme, in this case, he term “rising star.” I set out in search of an official scientific explanation, and failing that, some obscure natural or even mythological phenomenon behind the theme for this issue. There were none to be had. It seems that the idea of a star rising is totally born of the wistful musing of human imagination. Stars do not rise; they become visible. And while some have the misconception that shooting stars give “rise” to the “rising” of stars, “shooting stars are not stars at all but cosmic hairballs composed of dust and rock that burn up once they hit Earth’s atmosphere. And while the event of a shooting or falling star is generally seen as a good omen, when used in reference to someone’s career, the allusion to a shooting or falling star tends to imply a negative outcome.

The creation of a star takes a while, a few million years, after a lot of hydrogen and spinning and heat, until there is enough critical mass to sustain it. Then, it can last millions, even billions more. A star, it seems, human or galactic, is a star, and although we, celestial bodies of the flesh-and-blood variety, do not last a million years, wellwrought poetry continues to enlighten—a pen-poke, perhaps, in a galaxy full of
words—for generations. But in a growing constellation of talent, how does one poet become visible above all the others? What gets poets noticed, and who needs to see them? In other words, how does a particular star become apparent?

This issue of CV2 features conversations with a couple of bright lights in the sky of Canadian poetry. Our first is Sina Queyras, currently living and teaching in the US. She has published three very different books by three very different publishers. CV2’s second featured poet, Kimmy Beach, lives and writes in Alberta, and is also the author of three collections of poetry, all from Turnstone.

In this issue, you will also find new writing from many other fine poets, including Tanis MacDonald and Tom Wayman. While the work of these poets does not exhaustively represent Canadian poetry, they do present a stunning range of the poetic talent in this country.

You will also find a special feature celebrating the League of Canadian Poets’ fortieth anniversary. Founded in 1966 by a group of Canada’s best-regarded poets— including Al Purdy, Raymond Souster, John Robert Colombo, Earle Birney, and Eli Mandel—the League aims, in its own words, to “enhance the status of poets and nurture a professional poetic community to facilitate the teaching of Canadian poetry
at all levels of education and to develop the audience for poetry by encouraging publication, performance, and recognition of Canadian poetry nationally and internationally.”

CV2 is pleased to offer this contribution in honour of the League’s commitment to promoting poetry in our country, and we offer our heartfelt congratulations and wish them another forty years of success.

— Clarise Foster