We drink or we drown, Paulette Dube says.
The Jasper author has released a new book of poetry titled the deepest part of the river won’t freeze. At an August 12 online book launch, organized by Dube’s publisher, Green Olive Press, and hosted by fellow Jasper wordsmith, Niki Wilson, Dube brought her digital audience along as she waded into the fast current. Expanding on themes of family, curiosity and coping with everyday existence, the session gave a snapshot of Dube’s trail-found inspirations, her over-the-fence interactions with neighbours and the guiding lights left by unseen collaborators.
“Anybody that touches us, we keep that perfume on us…I think those are the angels that follow us,” she said.
Dube’s exploration of past and present was a focal point for Wilson, and as they ruminated on the passage of time, Dube allayed Wilson’s anxieties of losing touch with her teenage son when our children move away from home.
“They always come back,” Dube laughed. “That bond between any mom and their kid is beyond walking through fire.”
Dube’s wisdom on such matters has come, in part, through her friendships with her neighbours. She dedicates a poem to “These Women,” who taught her that even though she didn’t always have girlfriends to chat with about the weather or gossip about their husbands, she is part of a network of women that will support each other.
“This is to the bone, these are women that will come to your house and bring you borscht because you’re having radiation therapy for breast cancer,” she said. “They’re not going to stay for chit chat. You love this person and that’s all there is to it.”
Somewhat reluctantly, Wilson transitioned the conversation from the warm fuzzies of community to the catastrophic warming of climate. She asked Dube about the role of poets in a world experiencing environmental crisis. Her mentor, as always, was armed with creativity and forgiveness, yet another reminder of the maternal instinct.
“We’re at this point where we’ve pushed Her. We see these wildfires and the glaciers falling and we’re going to see violence in terms of temperature and thunderstorms,” she said. “We have to be the adults in our house and that’s really tough.”
Dube is tough. Reading her work is not. Although poetry has a reputation of being inaccessible, of requiring special training and education to appreciate, Dube’s form is deep without being obscure. Yes, there is a certain mystery which reveals itself long after you’ve read it, but her metaphors aren’t hidden. Like her, they’re direct, sometimes hypnotizing.
“When you read Paulette’s writing you will notice it has a kind of aura,” Wilson suggested in her introduction. “She casts you under her spell, whether we are walking beside her with angels or being stung by a bee.”
Those experiences—the stings, the tears, the relentless shadows and the “ridiculous beauty”— are all writeable, Dube promises. As a poet, she tries to drink it all in.
Otherwise she drowns.
Dube’s latest book, the deepest part of the river won’t freeze, is available through Green Olive Press.
Bob Covey //thejasperlocal@gmail.com
