AN UNTITLED POEM BY E.D. BLODGETT
what is this God
that I am always
speaking about so boldly
and more where
does the voice come from
that I claim to hear
it is the silence
all around me
coming out of my flesh
yes my flesh
where all my secrets
remain nearest to me
secret flesh
holy flesh
flesh waiting in silence
Oct. 12, 2018
The local and national arts community is reeling in sorrow with the Blodgett family upon the news of the passing of prominent poet E.D. (Ted) Blodgett on Nov. 15. He was 81.
His death makes for an especially sad year as his first wife, renowned local potter and environmentalist Elke Blodgett, passed away in February. The family is left shocked at the turn of events, yet relieved that Ted’s suffering has finally ended. He leaves behind his three children with Elke – Astrid, Gunnar and Kirsten – and his wife of 27 years, Irena, plus their son, Peter.
The former St. Albert resident had been battling a malignant cancer for the last several years.
“It was I think maybe a month after Mom died that he came up to meet an oncologist here who said, ‘I can’t do anything for you. You’re going to become a paraplegic. You’re going to lose control of your body from pretty much the ribs down. It’s not going to be fun,’” Gunnar said, noting how his father dealt with the news stoically but with a fair degree of turning a blind eye to his prognosis.
“Dad had been, in the words of his wife, in denial for the past six years, which has for the most part up until the last month or so allowed him to deal with things with a considerable amount of equanimity … of positive vibes.”
Edward Dickinson Blodgett was born in Philadelphia, with both genes and interests that followed the line of the famous American poet Emily Dickinson. He was educated extensively at various institutions in the United States before moving to Canada in the mid-1960s, settling in a Grandin home befitting a pair of accomplished artists. He taught for more than 50 years and must have edified thousands of fresh literati in his English and Comparative Literature classes at the University of Alberta.
In his later years, he moved to British Columbia but never wavered in his poetry production or his publication schedule. It is difficult enough for most poets to have one compilation of works get to print, let alone be appreciated. Blodgett brought nearly 30 books of his poetry into the world, the last of which – Songs for Dead Children – was published earlier this year.
He was prolific, not profligate in his words. The language of his poetry was often sparse yet dense with emotion and substance. Gunnar said the full Ted Blodgett collection must contain tens of thousands of individual works. In the last months, he was writing one a day.
For his artistry and acumen in that regard, he won two Governor General’s Awards, plus other laurels from the Writers Guild of Alberta (which he helped found) and the Canadian Authors Association. He was known also as a scholar and literary critic, and a fervent promoter of Canadian and medieval literature who read in numerous languages. He taught here and in several other countries, too, including Austria, Germany and France.
Blodgett was Edmonton’s second Poet Laureate (from 2007 to 2009) and the writer in residence at MacEwan University in 2004. He was named to the City of Edmonton’s Arts and Culture Hall of Fame in 2011 and was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1986. He retired as Distinguished University Professor Emeritus and held the Louis Desrochers Chair in Études canadiennes at Campus Saint-Jean.
But one does not survive on laurels alone. He was an avid squash player who loved birds and the dynasty era Oilers with equal enthusiasm. With his rich, baritone voice, he sang with (and sometimes wrote for) the Richard Eaton Singers and played the renaissance lute in keeping with his interest in all things medieval.
Many remember him simply for his love of life and his resounding, unmistakable laugh.
“He was a big man with a big laugh,” said Douglas Barbour, a colleague of his at the University of Alberta and one who appreciated the poet’s “small, tight, incredibly sharp little poems.”
He shared an anecdote about how Ted stood up for him during his review for tenure. Barbour was “at odds” with his own chair and didn’t receive that support. In walked Ted, who was the chair of the Comparative Literature program at the time, to offer some important words.
“He was the one who made all the statements that my own chair should have been making on my behalf,” Barbour said, remarking on Blodgett’s integrity and selflessness. “My wife and I thought that that was incredibly generous effort on his part for me. Of course, I was there until I retired so it was pretty important. A lovely gesture on his part, and one that he didn’t have to make. From what I heard of him from everybody else who knew him … that was part of who he was.”
In the loss of this cultural heavyweight, we are left with the echoes of his laughter and the many, many volumes of his words to ponder and remember him by. Gunnar holds on to the memories of his father teaching him fly-fishing and regaling the family with terrible accents after one tipple too many. In later years, they went to a pub near his Surrey home where he revealed a longstanding tenderness that still existed for his late first wife.
“I was getting horribly embarrassed while he was teasing the staff about whether the pizzas were being cooked in a Blodgett oven, because that’s what the best pizza ovens were, and then laughing at them uproariously when they looked confused,” he said. “I think the most he gave to me other than a love of literature and the arts, which my mother also gave me, was his critiquing of my attempts to learn to write as a teenager by asking me to clarify, to simplify. Over and over, essay after essay, pulling out, threading out what I’m trying to say, helping me find easier ways to say it. That was a massive gift.”
There is no easy way to characterize his contributions to Canada’s arts and Canada’s artists. They are undeniably rich and substantial, just as the poet was in life.
Celebrations of Blodgett’s life have yet to be announced but will be held in both Edmonton and Vancouver.
