97 Positions of the Heart

By Jaik Josephson and Erin Josephson-Laidlaw

Elizabeth Smart, author of By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept (1945), has been heralded as a complicated and passion fuelled artist who dared to live in disregard of the burdensome expectations for women in the first half of the last century. 97 Positions of the Heart is a lyrical travelogue through the courageous life of this Canadian writer. Poet Jaik Josephson mines both her biography and literary catalogue to escort the reader into her remarkable world. Each poem charts Smart's persistent quest to resist the forces that sought to claim and silence her. Text is paired with illustrations by Erin Josephson-Laidlaw to reveal a vast emotional range that meditates upon Elizabeth's bewildering childhood, a tumultuous romantic pairing with English writer, George Barker, the experience of motherhood and her pursuit of a prosaic language that speaks a truth about life in the social margins.

I am ready for a teetering walk in the dark

on those highest of heels.

I am ready for that merciful car.

Ready to ride to where suckling jazz wails feral,

to where my people smoke and laugh absurd in their feathers and uncaring.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Muses’ Company
• Release date: Oct 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9781990738029

Jaik Josephson

Jaik Josephson's poetry has been published in Shared Wisdom: A Poetry Anthology and Prairie Fire. He has particular interest in fusing theatre and poetry. Six of his pieces were incorporated into Coming into Autumn, a multi-disciplinary work by Naomi Cooke and Brent Lott. Jaik is the author of The Colour of Vowels, a play based on the life and poetry of Arthur Rimbaud (workshopped by Theatre Projects Manitoba in 2001 and with a staged performance in 2002).

Book preview

Cover: 97 Positions of the Heart, written by Jaik Josephson and illustrated by Erin Josephson-Laidlaw has an image of the torso of a woman in the outline of a heart. She is standing with her long arms and her hands clutched. Her head is outlined as a rose, with four maple leaves on the four corners of the head. Two butterflies are sitting on the rose. Her short hair is tied back at the nape of her neck.

©2012, Jaik Josephson and Erin Josephson-Laidlaw

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from The Muses’ Company, an imprint of J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing Inc., except for brief excerpts used in critical reviews, for any reason, by any means, without the permission of the publisher.

The Muses’ Company Series Editor: Clarise Foster

Cover art by Erin Josephson-Laidlaw

Book design by Relish New Brand Experience Inc.

Author photo of Jaik Josephson by Brent Lott

Author photo of Erin Josephson-Laidlaw by Tim Raffey

Printed and bound in Canada on 100% post-consumer recycled paper.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Manitoba Arts Council and The Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program.

library and archives canada cataloguing in publication

Josephson, Jaik, 1960-

97 positions of the heart / Jaik Josephson; illustrations by Erin Josephson-Laidlaw.

Poems.

isbn 978-1-897289-77-8

1. Smart, Elizabeth, 1913-1986—Poetry. i. Josephson-Laidlaw, Erin, 1987- ii. Title. iii. Title: Ninety-seven positions of the heart.

ps8619.o8465n55 2012         c811’.6         c2012-902453-8

J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing

p.o. box 86, rpo Corydon Avenue, Winnipeg, mb Canada r3m 3s3

97 POSITIONS

OF THE HEART

Jaik Josephson

Illustrations by

Erin Josephson-Laidlaw

Logo: The Muses’ Company. The logo shows a woman's head with braided hair looking at an open book in front of her.

That was my life out there, frail, fluttering. No wonder we insulate ourselves from wonders. Poetry is like this, it is moving, terrible, vivid.

Look the other way when you write, or you may faint.

Elizabeth Smart, In The Meantime¹

Acknowledgements

97 positions of the heart was born out of a late night dinner