The American Psychoanalyst has had the pleasure of featuring one of John Samuel Tieman's poems before, entitled “Prodigal.” We are very pleased to feature this one, with its stark, affecting imagery and interesting endnote.
ST. PATRICK'S BASILICA, MONTREAL
the leaflet says Emile Nelligan once prayed herehorrified and solar and paledementia like an ice violina vein where no one finds goldwhat did you see when you saw Jesusa rag doll a neon eclipse Baudelaire fantastic nostrils sudden birdspsalms sung by orphansnearly fifty years in a hospital andI envy you, Emile Nelligan, envy you composingthe same poem every morning and every morning
When my wife, Phoebe Cirio, and I vacationed in Montreal a few years ago, I was amazed at how little I knew about Canadian poetry. We went to Sunday mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, where I read in a brochure that Emile Nelligan was baptized there. Without explanation, it read “Nelligan” like I should just know him. He is considered the Arthur Rimbaud of Canada. Schools and libraries are named after him. Like Rimbaud, he stopped writing in his late teens, in Nelligan's case at the onset of schizophrenia. Emile Nelligan spent the rest of his life, the next 42 years, in a hospital. And became a legend.
—John Samuel Tieman
Sheri Butler Hunt, M.D., is a graduate analyst in the adult and child divisions at the Seattle Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. A published poet and member of TAP's editorial board, she welcomes readers' comments and suggestions at .