 [ Large Image ] | Trudeau: Long March, Shining Path George Elliott Clarke 2007 / Poetry / $21.95 9781554470372 / Trade paper / 128 pp George Elliott Clarke’s newest dramatic poem, Trudeau, makes an irreverent, jubilant portrait of the life and politics of one of Canada’s most controversial political heroes, Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Clarke’s poem provides a whimsical and informative look at the balance of world powers in the 1960s and 70s, infused with the spirit of the many revolutions taking place throughout the world during these years. The poem opens on a hillside in Nanjing, China, April 1949, in the midst of the country’s civil war. Our hero exchanges political stances with Mao and falls for a beautiful young flautist. From China the drama moves to Fredericton, NB, where Trudeau chats with Massachusetts Senator and future American president John F. Kennedy, who has just received an honorary doctorate from the university. The two men cavalierly discuss the perks of political power, each on the cusp of leading their countries. Then, in Havana, on the eve of the Bay of Pigs invasion, Fidel Castro treats Trudeau to rum and cigars and offers his take on revolutions, Cuban and otherwise. When the focus moves to the Quiet Revolution and Trudeau’s response to this crisis in his leadership, Clarke presents a leader at once loved and loathed at home, who perseveres through both political and personal upheaval. Originally composed as the libretto for a new opera by D.D. Jackson to be presented at Toronto’s Harbourfront Festival in April 2007, Trudeau is a political caper, an extravagant portrait and a dramatic study of influence, power, revolution and liberation. Clarke injects the life of one of this country’s most intriguing personalities with the exuberance and grimy frankness his readers have come to love and expect. According to the author: “As a teenage poet in the 1970s, seven artist-intellectuals—or poet-politicos—helped me to conceive my voice. They were jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, troubadour-bard Bob Dylan, libertine lyricist Irving Layton, guerilla leader and poet Mao Zedong, reactionary modernist Ezra Pound, Black Power orator Malcolm X and the Right Honourable Pierre Elliott Trudeau. These ‘idols’ inspired me to sculpt an individualist poetic scored with implicit social commentary. Yes, this ‘Gang of Seven’ is flawed. But, taken as a whole, I find their blunt talk, suave styles, acerbic independence, raunchy macho, feisty lyricism, singing heroics and scarf-and-beret chivalry quite, well, liberating. “For me, no Canadian stood more for liberation than Trudeau, that aloof populist, rights-trampling democrat and tax-and-spend millionaire. An operatic figure in life (1919–2000), he now merits dramatic treatment. My dramatic poem imagines the politician as ‘player’: Plato meets Chaplin.” To purchase this title: Add it to your cart | Other Books by this Author |  | White George Elliott Clarke 2021 / Canadian Poetry / $29.95 CAN 9781554472307 / Trade paper / 256 pp |  | The Merchant of Venice (Retried) George Elliott Clarke 2017 / Poetry / $19.95 CAN 9781554471713 / Trade paper / 64 pp |  | Gold George Elliott Clarke 2016 / Poetry / $21.95 CAN 9781554471577 / Trade paper / 160 pp |  | Black George Elliott Clarke 2012 / Poetry / $21.95 CAN 9781554471034 / Trade paper / 152 pp |  | Blue George Elliott Clarke 2011 / Poetry / $21.95 CAN 9781554470990 / Trade paper / 176 pp |  | Red George Elliott Clarke 2011 / Poetry / $19.95 CAN 9781554470983 / Trade paper / 160 pp |  | Whylah Falls George Elliott Clarke 2010 / Poetry / $21.95 CAN 9781554470952 / Trade paper / 208 pp |  | Execution Poems George Elliott Clarke 2009 / Poetry / $14.95 CAN 9781554470815 / Trade paper / 48 pp | Québécité George Elliott Clarke 2003 / Poetry / $39.95 CAN 9781894031752 / Fine / 112 pp |  | Québécité George Elliott Clarke 2003 / Poetry / $18.95 CAN 9781894031745 / Trade paper / 112 pp |  | Africadian History: An Exhibition Catalogue George Elliott Clarke 2001 / Poetry / $4.95 CAN 9781894031523 / Pamphlet / 16 pp |  | Execution Poems George Elliott Clarke 2001 / Poetry / $12.95 CAN 9781894031486 / Trade paper / 48 pp |
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