“Imagining Imagining”: Wisdom from award-winning author Gary Barwin

If you’ve never read anything by Canadian poet and writer, Gary Barwin, do yourself a big favour and pick up one of his numerous books. I’ve read a couple but the one that’s resonated with me the most so far is Imagining Imagining: Essays on Language, Identity and Infinity (Wolsak and Wynn Publishers, 2023).

It delves into various topics that draw on his vast experience of having lived in several different countries, having parents and grandparents who’ve lived in several more besides (and, being Jewish, not always under pleasant circumstances), and having exercised his artistic muscle in everything from poetry of every type, to fiction, to children’s books, and now to contemplative essays.

He and I are both in our seventh decade (he’s about 5 years younger), so it’s no surprise that his choice of topics resonates with me. I’ve now read Imagining Imagining twice.

I thought I’d share a few (among so many) of the great lines from his book:

– “I’m feeling that the end is in sight, even if I’m lucky and it is thirtysomething years away. In truth, I’m liking this life, where I’m at, what I can do, and I want more of it. I want it to continue.”

– “We all can find our own particular ways of expressing the world and finding expression in it. Not cultural hierarchies. Cultural webs.”

– “More and more, I’m figuring out who I am by figuring out who I’m not.” (I really love this one)

– “I’d like to think that when someone we know dies, they don’t disappear because our bodies have encoded them in its structure. We may not see them, but we see with them. They are (in) us, in our way of being, in the honeycomb of our self.”

– “You don’t have to know what you’re doing. You don’t have to have a plan. Writing is an exploration. You can figure it out as you go along.”

– “I’m okay with having books that I never read.”

– “You are always already everything.”

I so highly recommend this read!