Regina poet Gerald Hill has resigned after one
year of his two-year term as Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan.
The cause of the resignation is unknown at this
time. When pressed for a reason yesterday outside the Frontenac, to which Hill
was seen returning with a box marked “Christmas liquor,” Hill would say only, “It’s time.”
According to his reports to Poet Laureate HQ, obtained
through the Freedom of Poetry Information Act, Hill had enjoyed his year as
poetry sovereign. His various events, most of them new to both the position and
himself, took him to Government House, pubs, Culture Days, rodeo parades, outdoor
food fairs, music festivals, arts congresses, comedy shows, and beyond. “It was
a blast,” Hill says, “except maybe for opening the Leader-Post recently and finding my mug spread over three pages.”
Why, then, the resignation? “Things came
together,” was all Hill would say outside the Frontenac, repeating that “it's time.”
While full exposé of reasons for the
resignation will have to wait, sources hint at a series of rejections of Hill’s
work, one commentator speculating that “constant rejection as a poet gives the
lie to public celebration as Poet Laureate.” Asked to confirm, Hill admitted
that “I did have another manuscript rejected Friday, my third this year” and
that “recent work can’t find any purchase in the journals of the land.” Could
it be that less prancing about as public poet and more work with pick and
shovel in the dark, private quarry is called for? “I do need a re-set,” Hill says.
“I think of it as the Abdication,” says Hill,
known to be viewing The Crown for the
fourth time. “My only regret is that I was unable to sign legislation requiring
poets to bow before and after their public readings.”
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