"To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone—to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone:

From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of doublethink—greetings."

George Orwell

From 1984

In honour of 1984, in 1984 The Muses’ Company, (a publishing house that I ran) published POETRY AGENDA POESIE 1984, containing the poems of 52 poets.

In honour of this year’s (2017) remembrance of 1984, I am reproducing the cover, the introduction in English & French and listing the 52 poets included.

Introduction

Welcome to 1984

1984 is a metaphor as well as a date. George Orwell designated this year as a time setting for his dark vision of the future. Well, that future is now (in fact if not in deed) and we have the whole year to contemplate this literary prophecy.

I felt that it was important to publish a poetic response to these times: one that would be appropriate in content and form. AGENDA 1984 is that appropriate form while the theme of time and timelessness is the perfect subject matter.

The 52 poets in this Agenda Anthology respond 52 ways. The diversity of the poems is a reaffirmation of the individual and is essential in refuting the metaphor. The poems deal with the moment, the day, the night, the seasons—the rituals connected with them—time, the end of it; the beauty, the ugliness, the celebration, the tragedy, the comedy and the universality of it all.

I am also very pleased by the bilingual nature of AGENDA 1984. It is bilingual in the truest sense. The poems exist independently together. The common vision is the individual voice speaking out in its own tongue. This is how we keep an eye on Big Brother in 1984.

Endre Farkas

L’Age de la Parole

Dans le zodiaque chinois, 1984 est l’année du rat. Dans le roman de George Orwell c’est l’année de la déshumanisation totale. Nous voulons que cette année soit, dans l’ère du verseau, en Amerique septentrionale, une année de poésie au jour le jour,. Ainsi nous vous proposons de lire 52 semaine, 52 poétes Anglophone et francophones, dans leur langue respective. Nous les avons répartis par saisons plutôt que par ordre alphabetique ou regroupment ethnique. Nous vous invitons donc à passer l’année en compagnie de ces poètes et à parcourir cet agenda au gré des jours et des poems qui le constituent.

Aquarious rising: 1984 est arrivée et nous rappelled l’immenence des apocalypses et genocides de toute sorte, des meilleurs des mondes et bonheures insoutenables de toute nature. Mais pour nous rappeler le sens profound de l’existence et la vraie raison d’être de l’homo sapiens, place à la poésie univesalle, place au réel absolu, place à la vie immediate!

Lucien Francoeur

Poets:

Robert Baillie, Genevieve Bartole, Germaine Beaulieu, Claude Beasoleil, Louky Bersianik, Claudine Bertrand, Bill Bissett, Earle Birney, Louise Blouin, Denise Boucher, George Bowering, Hughes Corriveau, Louise Cotnoir, Antonio D’alfonso, Jean Paul Daoust, Denise Desautels, Michael Delisle, Louis Dudek, Louise Dupré, Endre Farkas, Cathy Ford, Lucien Francoeur, Artie Gold, Kristjana Gunnars, Karl Jirgens, Lionel Kearns, Tom Konyves, Claudia Lapp, Renaud Longchamps, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Daphne Marlatt, John McAuley, David McFadden, Jim Mele, Mary Melfi, Stephen Morrissey, John Newlove, B.P. Nichol, Ken Norris, Isaac Osborne, John Oughton, Bernard Pozier, André Roy, Robyn Sarah, Gerri Sinclair, Richard Sommer, Julie Stanton, Désiree Szuchany, Ruth Taylor, Elise Turcotte, Yolande Villemaire, Peter Van Toorn.