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