Literary harmony
photo courtesy Jesse Fergeson
Getting some culture: U of O alumnus Jesse Patrict Ferguson finds a use for his degree.
U of O alumnus publishes first book of poetry
JESSE PATRICK FERGUSON did not set out to be a writer. Although the U of O alumnus went to school with an alternate career path in mind, he has found a way to strike a balance between passion and practicality—the result is the long-awaited publication of his first book of poetry, Harmonics.
Ferguson, who majored in English and dabbled in biology throughout the duration of his degree, has been writing seriously since high school. Despite his natural fervour for the craft, it took a creative writing course at the U of O with acclaimed professor and published poet Seymour Mayne to give Ferguson the final push he needed to pursue writing professionally. “Since then, I’ve been thinking of [writing] as a major part of what I want to do in life,” said Ferguson.
While studying in Ottawa, Ferguson worked on both Ottawa online poetry journal Bywords and former U of O publication Yawp, which is now known as The Ottawa Arts Review. Currently he works as an editor for the University of New Brunswick publication The Fiddlehead. Ferguson views his experiences at each of these publications as important stepping stones in his writing career.
“Editing the poems for final publication influenced my attention to detail,” explained Ferguson. “Just by going over it with a fine-toothed comb, I learned what not to do.”
Ferguson’s first book is a compilation of what he feels are his best poems of the past five years. The poems concentrate on his life during that period, focusing specifically on his time living both in Ottawa and Fredericton, N.B.
“If I went back any further in time, I think the poetry wouldn’t be strong enough to include,” Ferguson noted. “I collected the best of all the writing I’d done so far, and [Harmonics] is the end result.”
The small collection was divided into two parts for its final publication. Ferguson explained that this is due to his tendency to write several poems which concentrate on the same subject.
“They sort of amplify each other,” he said. “That’s where the idea of the harmonics series came from. You have one note, and then a one note that’s related to it in the harmonic scale, and they sort of amplify off each other—riff off of each other.”
Despite this replication of ideas, Ferguson’s poetry does touch on a wide range of subjects. For example, his personal interest in the sciences is quite obvious in some pieces—particularly when paired with the knowledge base gained from his studies. The resulting pieces use technical terminology to great effect.
“That love of anatomy, and especially animal behaviour and ecology have been my lifelong [interests] ever since I was a little kid,” explained Ferguson. “There’s definitely a strong sort of nerdish background that creeps into my poetry a lot.”
Ferguson also doesn’t shy away from using people he knows as subjects, refusing to be deliberately ambiguous about the subjects he depicts. In some cases, it’s not a problem. One poem, however, in which Ferguson depicts his mentor and former professor, the aforementioned Mayne, created considerable consternation.
“It imagines what it would be like to lose a mind like Seymour has,” explained Ferguson. “He’s just extremely knowledgeable about all sorts of stuff in Canadian literature, and other fields too.
“He sort of took it that the poem was saying that he was on the brink of death, or something like that. He didn’t like the idea that I was suggesting that he was at death’s door, but he [thankfully] has a great sense of humour about stuff like that.”
Other poems don’t indicate any direct influence at all. Rather than using elements or experiences from his past, Ferguson permits the occasional poem—such as “Noonday Demon”—to take on a meaning all its own.
“That poem was sort of strange in that way, because I just let my mind wander in it—it went in its direction on its own,” said Ferguson. “I didn’t have a definite idea of what I was going to write in that one.”
Likewise, Ferguson is also influenced by established poetic forms, such as the sonnet, a traditional love poem 14 lines in length.
“It’s one of those forms that everyone seems to like to do and it partly boils down to the almost puzzle-like challenge of it,” said Ferguson. “It’s neat to be part of a tradition that goes back to the Renaissance poets.”
Although the publication of his first collection of poetry is a landmark in Ferguson’s budding literary career, he still considers writing to be a learning process. As far as his ongoing education on the subject is concerned, Ferguson finds you can learn a few things from both sides.
“I think that good profs encourage you to interpret poems in an open way, and that there’s not one set meaning for [a] poem. The best idea is to always be open to the fact that the poem can mean several things at the same time, and it’s hard to grade that on an essay.”
Ferguson’s Harmonics is available for purchase at freehand-books.com.
