Dig/literary

Adrien Arsenault, a Native Poet of Prince Edward Island, was born in Mont-Carmel, in 1925. His poetry, written both \in his mother tongue of French and adopted tongue of English, has been published in Variations on‘ a Gulf Breeze and Island Prose and Poetry (both books by the Centenial Commission in 1973)

This weeks Literary Section is devoted to Father Arsenault's latest publication, Eschatology .

Eschatolo , meaning a final cosmic death, is a work of art, an Integration of poetry, prose, andr I collages. It was published in a limited-signed—edition of fifty. It is not a bound book, but rather a portfolio of separate pages and pictures, within it's own wrapping.

THE- CADRE, TUES.‘, MARCH 2'6'.‘ 1974’ Page 8

Father Arsenault began to work on this portfolio in the mid-summer of 1973 and completed his work within a span of about two months. , The poetry is a cathartic outburst in the face of ever- surfacing fear, bewilderment, and rage, rage at "this ‘/ daily inner dying" and the '

'realization that life has

slipped through the fingers like grains of sand° It speaks to us with clarity, honesty, defiance...and , great bitterness. One senses the painias4mythologies and illusions and even,at times the life-quest itself, slip out of reach, elusive and vapourous, leaving the author facing the grim ‘ reality: "On trouve remede a tout excepté a la mort"

One is lead into another world, another media,_ through the collection of collages. They are a powerful statement in themL

/

selves. One sees»a cry of

' horror and pain in the‘

twisted face of an African mask, juxtaposed with the calm yet purposeful serenity of a Hellenic Apollo. Harsh black calligraphy‘breaks/its wav through obscene graffiti. Anger, rage.and utter hopelessness,shout through the straining figures of Picasso's Guernica. Cold dehumanizing numbers ” stand stark in the face of. a Madonna's plea for salvation Classical beauty, truth and confidence are shattered by the primitive violence' and modern despair. x

These collages are as an important facet of Eschatolo , as much,if not more than the poetry itself.

. For Father Arsenault, his art "remains onels sole capacity to redeem a private world otherwise condemmed to unalterable oblivion."

by Pamela Sexsmith