"It Is Okay to Go Inside of Yourself Even if it Scares You" Poet Joseph A. Dandurand on Opening Doors

Perhaps Richard van Camp said it best about prolific and powerful poet Joseph A. Dandurand's writing when he commented "Good Lord—what a voice!" Dandurand's 13 collections of poetry have consistently displayed a sharp eyed wisdom and thoughtfulness, creating an unmistakable literary voice. 

His newest offering, I Will Be Corrupted (Guernica Editions) shows he is only continuing to build on his ability to connect deeply and honestly with readers. Told from the perspective of a speaker struggling with depressing but who still longs to see and experience beauty and connection, it is a moving and raw collection. 

We're excited to have Joseph on Open Book with us today as part of our Poets in Profile series. He tells us about about juggling a busy calendar of speaking engagements and workshops even through the strange days of the pandemic, about the geographical feature that has inspired him as a poet, and about the importance of a small but essential word in poetry. 

Open Book:

Can you describe an experience that you believe contributed to your becoming a poet?

Joseph A. Dandurand:

I was going to be a famous stage actor but my third year acting professor told me I should be doing something else... so I began to write plays and poetry and have been writing poems for 30 years now. Each book and each play began to open doors for me and I opened them all. Today I have 14 books of published poetry and I have had several of my plays produced over the years. And now that I have taken on the role as a storyteller... my calendar is booked. Even in Covid I am very busy doing online readings and promoting new books. I am also asked to teach online by three different school districts. I continue to write every day. Now I am working on a new manuscript of short stories. Raising three kids, a cat, and two dogs. I am also the AD for Vancouver Poetry House as well as director of our Kwantlen Cultural Center. Excuse me... someone is knocking on my door.

OB:

What has been your most unlikely source of inspiration?

JAD:

The Fraser River where we have lived for 10 thousand years. My house sits on an island and when I look out my window, I can see the River as she flows on by. Today there is heavy smoke in the air from fires below us. What is the sequence of the apocalypse? We have had the plague, mosquitoes, fires,... if I see a cloud of grasshoppers I am going to get into my boat and go to the ocean! What I see around me and near me is what I use in all my poems and stories. I also use old myths and creatures of our culture and try and give them humanistic qualities. For example I use the Sasquatch quite a bit as well the fish from the river. There are endless images I see everyday here on our island. I have no excuse now but to write and since Covid I have written three books of poetry, three plays, and two manuscripts of short stories.

OB:

Do you write poems individually and begin assembling collections from stand-alone pieces, or do you write with a view to putting together a collection from the beginning?

JAD:

I write a collection from the beginning. I write one poem each day and then I paste it on my Facebook page and I enjoy when friends read them and comment. I do this until I am at 90 pages of poems and then I am done with that book. As I come to the end of each book I am already thinking about what I will write next and after a book of poems I usually write a new play and when that is done I start the process of writing a new book of poems. For me the first poem begins the journey of each new book. In some cases I know what the poems will be about as I have worked them in my head the day before. I write the poem and it is done and finished. I never go back and change much of each poem unless when going through edits from the publisher I will make changes. But those changes are usually to do with the title of a poem as I am terrible at titles!

OB:

What's more important in your opinion: the way a poem opens or the way it ends?

JAD:

The way it ends. For me the ending brings what comes before together. It is also the way I read in public is the way I write the poem. I find it funny when I see a poet reading and they sing the last word of each sentence and it makes me wonder... do they sing when they write? I am always struggling with publishers with my use in my poems of the word AND but for me I write like I would read the piece out loud and the word AND gives me time to breathe as I chop through the poem. When I come to endings of my poems there are usually one word stanzas and I slow down as I breathe the last words out. A bit dramatic but effective when I think about it. Have read many poems in public and when I finish good poems the silence of the crowd screams to me that it was a fair poem to have shared and that is what I enjoy as a poet... the silence.

OB:

What was the last book of poetry you read that really knocked your socks off?

JAD:

Odes and Laments by Fiona Tinwei Lam.

OB:

How would you describe the poetry community in Canada? What strengths and weaknesses do you observe within the community?

JAD:

I am not a part of the poetry community.

OB:

What is the best thing about being a poet... and what is the worst?

JAD:

I love that it has opened doors for me, and I have taken them all to be where I am today. The worst is sharing something about myself that I have kept for myself. I enjoy teaching young people that it is okay to share and write about whatever they may be struggling with in life. From grade fours to adults I always ask when I am teaching for them to write me something and I always give them the same title of their piece and it is always titled: One Year. I then ask if anyone would like to read theirs out loud and soon everyone wishes to read and to hear the simple works of grade fours who struggle but also see the beauty in the world. To me that is the greatest gift I can give to the world. To simply teach others that it is okay to go inside of yourself even if it scares you, even if it is so much a part of you that sharing it is one more step to that knocking at the door.

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Joseph A. Dandurand is a member of Kwantlen First Nation located on the Fraser River about 20 minutes east of Vancouver. He resides there with his three children – Danessa, Marlysse, and Jace. Joseph is the Director of the Kwantlen Cultural Center. He has published 13 books of poetry including: I Want (Leaf Press 2015), Hear And Foretell (BookLand Press 2015), The Rumour (BookLand Press 2018), SH:LAM (the doctor) (Mawenzi Press 2019), and his children’s play: Th’owixiya: the hungry feast dish (Playwrights Press Canada 2019).