Some Commie Poems!

To go along with our latest episodes on left-wing movements in 1920s/1930s Canada, here are some excerpts of the poetry written by the radical people who carried the flag of change in the Great White North.

Bust of Canadian Poet Joe Wallace in the USSR

Joe Wallace (1890–1975)
Joe Wallace’s life was marked by his deep commitment to the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) and his passion for writing. He was born in Toronto and raised in Halifax before joining the CPC in 1922. His dedication led him to contribute articles, essays, and poems to party periodicals, making a significant impact within the party. Wallace also found camaraderie with like-minded writers through his affiliation with the Song Fishermen, a group of Nova Scotia writers who shared his passion for poetry and, to a lesser extent, his political beliefs. In 1933, he made the courageous decision to leave his career in advertising to fully devote himself to journalism and activism within the CPC. Unfortunately, in 1940, the CPC faced suppression, leading to Wallace’s imprisonment from 1941-42. Despite this difficult period, he channeled his creativity and resilience into poetry, demonstrating his unwavering spirit even in challenging circumstances.

“THE FIVE POINT STAR”

Dank is the fog that dogs our steps,
The mist that twists in siren shapes,
Edging us on to ledges dim
Where death, expectant, grimly gapes.

Baleful the light, though beautiful,
That leads to those seductive arms
Whose clasp is death, and burial
Beneath the bullfrog’s late alarms.

Weary of too much wandering,
Wary of leaders who mislead,
We know not how to stay nor start,
Nor to go back, nor to proceed.

Suddenly on the leaden sky,
Bright like a bayonet afar,
Cleaving the dark, the doubt, the death,
Rises the pilot Five Point Star.

Russia, salute! Not to your lands,
But to your deathless working class
Who broke the spears of all the Tsars
Upon their breasts, that we might pass

From haunted days and harried ways,
(Poor hounded slaves who breathe by stealth)
Through revolution’s iron gates
Into the world-wide commonwealth.

Dorothy Livesay (1909-1996)
Dorothy Livesay was born in Winnipeg. Her parents encouraged her early writing and its publication: Green Pitcher appeared, to favourable notices from Charles Bruce and Raymond Knister, in 1928. Signpost appeared in 1932, but by the time of its publication Livesay was critical of its lyric orientation. From 1931-32 she had studied at the Sorbonne and been radicalized by the conditions and political activists of Depression-era Paris. Upon her return to Canada she joined the Communist Party and completed a diploma in social work. During the Depression, Livesay was a Party organizer; she wrote agitprop and chants for assemblies and demonstrations. As for many on the Canadian left, disillusionment followed Stalin’s 1939 non-aggression pact with Hitler and the outbreak of world war.

“DAY AND NIGHT”

I

Dawn, red and angry, whistles loud and sends
A geysered shaft of steam searching the air.
Scream after scream announces that the churn
Of life must move, the giant arm command.
Men in a stream, a moving human belt
Move into sockets, every one a bolt.
The fun begins, a humming, whirring drum –
Men do a dance in time to the machines.

II

One step forward
Two steps back
Shove the lever,
Push it back

While Arnot whirls
A roundabout
And Geoghan shuffles
Bolts about.

One step forward
Hear it crack
Smashing rhythm –
Two steps back

Your heart-beat pounds
Against your throat
The roaring voices
Drown your shout

Across the way
A writhing whack
Sets you spinning
Two steps back –

One step forward
Two steps back.

Earle Birney (1904-1995)
Birney was born in Calgary, Alberta, and grew up near Lacombe, in Banff, and in the Kootenay Valley, where he worked briefly as a labourer in the region’s national parks. He graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1926 and took M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Toronto in Old English and medieval studies. In the early 1930s he was active in the Trotskyite wing of the Communist Party of Canada. He taught at the University of Toronto and was the literary editor of the Canadian Forum (1938–40).

“ANGLOSAXON STREET”

Dawndrizzle ended   dampness steams from
blotching brick and   blank plasterwaste
Faded housepatterns   hoary and finicky
unfold stuttering   stick like a phonograph

Here is a ghetto   gotten for goyim
O with care denuded   of nigger and kike
No coonsmell rankles   reeks only cellarrot
attar of carexhaust   catcorpse and cookinggrease
Imperial hearts   heave in this haven
Cracks across windows   are welded with slogans

There’ll Always Be An England   enhances geraniums
and V’s for Victory   vanquish the housefly

Ho! with climbing sun   march the bleached beldames
festooned with shopping bags   farded flatarched
bigthewed Saxonwives   stepping over buttrivers
waddling back wienerladen   to suckle smallfry
Hoy! with sunslope   shrieking over hydrants
flood from learninghall   the lean fingerlings
Nordic nobblecheeked   not all clean of nose
leaping Commandowise   into leprous lanes

What! after whistleblow!   spewed from wheelboat
after daylong doughtiness   dire handplay
in sewertrench or sandpit   come Saxonthegns
Junebrown Jutekings   jawslack for meat

Sit after supper   on smeared doorsteps
not humbly swearing   hatedeeds on Huns
profiteers politicians   pacifists Jews

Then by twobit magic   to muse in movie
unlock picturehoard   or lope to alehall
soaking bleakly   in beer skittleless

Home again to hotbox   and humid husbandhood
in slumbertrough adding   sleepily to Anglekin
Alongside in lanenooks   carling and leman
caterwaul and clip   careless of Saxonry
with moonglow and haste   and a higher heartbeat

Slumbers now slumtrack   unstinks cooling
waiting brief for milkmaid   mornstar and worldrise