J’Accuse...! (Poem Versus Silence)

“J’Accuse...! is so dynamic, joyous in its language and emotion, and consistently exciting, engrossing.... A page-turner! And mysteriously easy to read given the inventiveness, color, and torsion of the poetic language.... A wonderful combination of the sophisticated, the primal, and the available. Great poetry has this sense of generous, human outreach from a very high and deep place. Something that comes down from the mountain yet without condescending.”
—A.F. Moritz, Guggenheim Award & Griffin Poetry Prize Laureate & Toronto Poet Laureate (2019-23)

What is it like to be “cancelled,” to be shouted down by the virulently self-righteous, and to be permitted no hearing, no defence?

In J’Accuse...! (Poem Versus Silence), an essay-in-poetry by Canada’s Parliamentary Poet Laureate emeritus, George Elliott Clarke contemplates how terrifyingly easy it was for him to fall victim – in January 2020 – to shrill defamation and scurrilous denunciation, to face “anti-social” media intimidation – all facilitated by reportage that spurred outrage rather than reflection. The result? Censorship and silencing, blacklisting and gag orders, the specialty of tyrannies, including the newfangled cult of #8220;cancellaires” and “digilantes.”

J’Accuse...! is a poignant manifesto that calls upon intellectuals and radicals to never submit to impulses that intentionally, or even unintentionally, forbid debate and questioning.

J’Accuse...! ponders what is truly unspeakable: injustice.

J’Accuse...! is a cri-de-coeur that unflinchingly reveals the personal cost – borne by all poets who strive to “bear witness to Treasure – / despite all opposing Battery.”

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