Nine Times Infinity

Notes about Linda Besner's poem "Feel Happier in Nine Seconds"

Mar 05, 2024

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I learned the secret of serenity
by waterboarding daffodils.
My Buddha is landfill.
My mantra choked

from a bluebird's neck.
It's ruthless, the pursuit
of happiness. Eighteen
seconds have elapsed.

My happiness is twice
your size, gold-chained
to the lamppost. It strains
its waistcoat as it grows.

Flog a sunbeam, harness
a cloud. You should be feeling
five times happier now:
the world is your Kleenex.

It's been a long sixty-three 
seconds in Attawapiskat,
but my happiness digs
diamond mines, slobbers

parasol knobs on the Rhine.
I sweeten my cantaloupe
with stolen breastmilk.
Peak joy is at nine

times nine - saddle up, dear.
An asteroid of happiness
is blasting through
the atmosphere.

Liner Notes: During yesterday’s commute to the university, I brought along a copy of The Next Wave: An Anthology of 21st Century Canadian Poetry loaned to me by Carl, I tasked myself with finding a couple poems that stuck out to me during the 20 minute car ride. Before reading this anthology my knowledge of Canadian poets or even writers outside of the Margaret Atwood CanLit scene was super sparse. Still very sparse.

I settled on Linda Besner’s piece because I wanted to know how I could find happiness in nine seconds. What is the secret to this mainstream marketing campaign disguised as a poem?

Then I came to appreciate the subtle nuances of her pursuit housed within acts of violence and torture: waterboarding the houseplants and choking out a bluebird. At the same time these acts of ruthlessness kept growing. Rampant acts of capitalism mark the speaker’s pride that their happiness has doubled. The goldchain tethered to lamppost strains to contain it. Maybe out of greed, but the only thing that I do know is that I am happy now. I am very happy.

Easy as that.

My tears water the earth. The speaker is crying. Something about the 63 seconds in Attawapiskat feel like whatever 9 times infinity equals.

This reference to Attwapiskat allows the reader to place themselves in a specific point, thus giving them a moment to situate themselves with the violence mentioned in the first stanza and the upcoming references to brutality in Attawapiskat.

Brutality towards people in terms of residential schools, and brutality against nature with the diamond mine.

At the time of reading the poem, I had no idea the ride I was in for, just some sort of inclination. I’d heard about residential schools a couple years ago. It was mentioned in a podcast, but initially I did not guess Attawapiskat would be a reference to one of the most brutal residential schools.

The lines but my happiness digs / diamond mines likely refers to the Victor Diamond Mine that’s 90km (56mi) west of Attawapiskat. Allegedly after signing a contract between the De Beers’ Diamond Consortium and the Attawapiskat community, there have been some issues adhering to the contract, or for some reason bounty money is not being dutifully paid to the Attawapiskat community:

De Beers Victor Diamond Mine is on Attawapiskat First Nation traditional land. An Impact-Benefit Agreement (IBA) was signed with community leaders in 2005 with Danny Metatawabin, acting as coordinator for the Impact-Benefit Agreement (IBA) between De Beers and Attawapiskat. Community members later protested the agreement through demonstrations and roadblocks claiming that the community's share of the "bounty from the mine isn't getting back to the community." De Beers has negotiated a lease area. Although it is acknowledged that the mine is on Attawapiskat traditional land, the royalties from Victor Mine flow to the Government of Ontario, not Attawapiskat First Nation. As of 2015, De Beers was paying up to $2 million per year to Attawapiskat. That payment is split between a trust fund controlled by the chief and council and the rest, which is used for community development and to pay Attawapiskat members who manage the band’s impact benefit agreement with De Beers, says Attawapiskat member Charlie Hookimaw.
The trust fund now totals $13 million. In 2014, the community received about $1 million; $480,000 went to business relations and $545,868 was spent on community development, Hookimaw says. They have 500 full-time employees with 100 from Attawapiskat First Nation. De Beers also employs Attawapiskat First Nation in winter road construction. The "mine employs 100 people from Attawapiskat at any one time. It generates about $400 million in annual revenue for the company." Sub-contractors from Attawapiskat First Nation also work for the mine.

Not to mention that according to article from The Pulitzer Center, Attawapiskat residents were often sent to St. Anne’s Residential School where they forced some of the worst cases of abuse and neglect in the country.1

A legacy of widespread inter-generational trauma for Canadian Indigenous people had been created by the government and the church, the outcomes of which are seen in communities like Attawapiskat today.

Thanks for reading!

EarShrub

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