my friends, my sweet barbarians,
there is that hunger which is not for food —
but an eye at the navel turns the appetite
round
with visions of some fabulous sandwich,
the brain’s golden breakfast
eaten with beasts
with books on plates
let us make an anthology of recipes,
let us edit for breakfast
our most unspeakable appetites —
let us pool spoons, knives
and all cutlery in a cosmic cuisine,
let us answer hunger
with boiled chimera
and apocalyptic tea,
an arcane salad of spiced bibles,
tossed dictionaries —
(O my barbarians
we will consume our mysteries)
and can we, can we slake the gaping eye of our desires?
we will sit around our hewn wood table
until our hair is long and our eyes are feeble,
eating, my people, O my insatiates,
eating until we are no more able
to jack up the jaws any longer —
to no more complain of the soul’s vulgar cavities,
to gaze at each other over the rust-heap of cutlery,
drinking a coffee that takes an eternity —
till, bursting, bleary,
we laugh, barbarians, and rock the universe —
and exclaim to each other over the table
over the table of bones and scrap metal
over the gigantic junk-heaped table:
by God that was a meal
Gwendolyn MacEwen (1966) from The Selected Gwendolyn MacEwan. Ed. Meaghan Strimas. Holstein: Exile Editions, 2007.
POETIC BITES (EXCERPTS FROM RESEARCH ESSAYS)
“The very first line of the poem addresses the readers, making it so that they are the barbarians, and that the speaker considers them her friends. MacEwen is welcoming them to sit and enjoy this “meal,” and they are here for something much better than food, and that is learning. These barbarians are here to sharpen their minds, not their weapons.”
““A Breakfast for Barbarians” is about how we start our day and end it. What knowledge can we get to make society a better place?”
ARTFUL FARE RESPONSES (RESPONSE TO ART WORK)
“The pile of books around the students makes it feel like they have been there for a very long time. The barbarians that stand above them are what the inner minds of the students look like, and in a way are the students’ true selves. ”
“The art depicts that the appetite for knowledge cannot be filled in one meal. The search for knowledge is endless. The students are feeding their brains even when they seem tired.”
“The grandiosity, or air of mysticism, about “dishes” like bibles and chimera is seemingly contradicted by their reduction to mere items of consumption. But our sense of these things being greater than our everyday tasks and who we appear to be on a daily basis (which is illustrated with the students meekly positioned at the bottom of the drawing), is the very reason why cultural traditions and knowledge are so well enjoyed like some “fabulous sandwich.” The gods appear infinite and omnipresent, possessing broad, pervasive influence. They exist beyond the mortal realm and can only be reached through a mystical ceremony or death—in other words, after a long, full life of studious “consumption” sitting around our tables “until our hair is long and our eyes are feeble.” It takes that long. ”
STUDENT BIOS
JAMIE COLE (ENGLISH) a creative writing major who enjoys pieces that have a fantasy aspect to them. Coming this spring he will be graduating with an associates degree in Creative Writing.
STEPHANE DUFAULT (FINE ARTS) is currently in the Bachelor of Fine Arts Program. Stephane enjoys drawing and painting and would like to further expand and experiment with his creative skills through the use of various new medias and techniques. He is currently looking to be a graphic illustrator and comic book artist with his sheer passion for drawing and illustrating.
LUKAS MCGREGOR (ENGLISH) is a full-time undergraduate student of anthropology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. He has a penchant for the fine arts of creative writing and music and hopes to find a career in either of these fields.
NIMRA RIAZ (ENGLISH) has been in Canada 3 years and says she had really good time working on the project.