Warren Heiti
Biography
Warren Heiti is a poet, scholar, and essayist who resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Heiti attained his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Victoria, and his PhD at Dalhousie University with research focused in Ancient Greek philosophy, lyric philosophy, and ecological ethics. His interests also include metaphilosophy and ethics. Heiti has previously taught on a sessional basis at Dalhousie University, Saint Mary’s University and for the Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia. He is currently working as an assistant professor of Philosophy at Saint Mary’s University.
Heiti’s poetry is featured in Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets (Nightwood 2004), Best New Poets 2009 (Samovar), The Best Canadian Poetry in English (Tightrope 2010), Lyric Ecology: An Appreciation of the Work of Jan Zwicky (Cormorant 2010). His work has also been published in The Antigonish Review and in The New Quarterly. Heiti has earned various honours, winning the Earle Birney Prize for Poetry in 2005 and receiving honourable mentions at the National Magazine Awards in 2008 and 2009. His first book of poetry, Hydrologos, was published by Pedlar Press in 2011. His essay “What Is Lyric Philosophy?” is published in Philosophy and Literature (2014).
Heiti’s poetry is featured in Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets (Nightwood 2004), Best New Poets 2009 (Samovar), The Best Canadian Poetry in English (Tightrope 2010), Lyric Ecology: An Appreciation of the Work of Jan Zwicky (Cormorant 2010). His work has also been published in The Antigonish Review and in The New Quarterly. Heiti has earned various honours, winning the Earle Birney Prize for Poetry in 2005 and receiving honourable mentions at the National Magazine Awards in 2008 and 2009. His first book of poetry, Hydrologos, was published by Pedlar Press in 2011. His essay “What Is Lyric Philosophy?” is published in Philosophy and Literature (2014).
SOKRATES: [What if an idea] were like one and the same day, which is in many places at the same time and nevertheless is not separate from itself…
---Plato
The spring light is
palinodic. All that I’ve done,
I want to take back. The old
Eleatic master seems to think
the problem of participation
is about the just distribution
of stuff. But what if
an idea can’t be
cut up and passed out
like a canvas sail? The day
is an idea and each thing
is thinking it, iridescently,
and each thought is a spoke
in the solar wheel. But this
crocus is also its own idea
of whiteness, the only dissent
in a consensus of purple.
The idea dies with it — but
that doesn’t mean it can’t be
known, an odour like coldness
from a garden hose, the song
of city water transposed
for the piccolo, a profile
distinct as a six-eared star.
At a sidewalk market,
the autumn spectrum
of apples: the sunset
has condensed in them.
It’s beauty’s accusation:
if you live your entire life over --
you’ll never be equal to it.
I stand there at the corner, known
by the equinox and knowing
nothing, exposed by the alethic
light of those apples,
that fearless crocus,
the magnolia tree, its chandelier
of tears.
Published in Hydrologos (Pedlar Press).
Used with permission from the poet and publisher.
---Plato
The spring light is
palinodic. All that I’ve done,
I want to take back. The old
Eleatic master seems to think
the problem of participation
is about the just distribution
of stuff. But what if
an idea can’t be
cut up and passed out
like a canvas sail? The day
is an idea and each thing
is thinking it, iridescently,
and each thought is a spoke
in the solar wheel. But this
crocus is also its own idea
of whiteness, the only dissent
in a consensus of purple.
The idea dies with it — but
that doesn’t mean it can’t be
known, an odour like coldness
from a garden hose, the song
of city water transposed
for the piccolo, a profile
distinct as a six-eared star.
At a sidewalk market,
the autumn spectrum
of apples: the sunset
has condensed in them.
It’s beauty’s accusation:
if you live your entire life over --
you’ll never be equal to it.
I stand there at the corner, known
by the equinox and knowing
nothing, exposed by the alethic
light of those apples,
that fearless crocus,
the magnolia tree, its chandelier
of tears.
Published in Hydrologos (Pedlar Press).
Used with permission from the poet and publisher.
Critical Analysis: The Restlessness of Language
Katie Cameron (St. Thomas University)
In “The Day,” Warren Heiti encourages readers to ponder the relationship between abstract language of concepts and the language of tangible, concrete particulars of the everyday, such as apples, a garden hose, or a crocus. Throughout the poem, Heiti questions how one concretizes concepts to express lived experience, and implies that the difficulty of defining and knowing an idea is similar to the difficulty of locating the essence of the day itself, as both are essentially abstractions. He surprises readers by requesting challenging intellectual leaps through the poem, later combining these challenges with effective metaphors to emphasize the miraculous happenings in the everyday. Just as the numerous, fleeting sights or sounds experienced throughout a day form its essence and allows readers to know their environment, so too does Heiti’s dynamic language and metaphor form a bridge between difficult concepts. Readers acquire an appreciation of the restlessness of language and the intellectual vigour of Heiti’s poetry as they traverse “The Day.”
Heiti introduces the theme of language’s restlessness when revealing that the spring light is “palinodic,” refering to a feature of ancient poetry where the fourth strophe repeats the structure of the first, and the third repeats that of the second (1-2). The poet chooses vibrant language to point readers in various directions: both temporally toward the ancient tradition and intellectually to ponder the metaphor in which spring initiates reflection. Heiti supposes that “an idea can’t be/cut up and passed out/like a canvas sail” (8-9). The line break cuts up the uncutable idea and thereby underlines the tension implicit in language and questions how it is possible to unpack and speak about it. He underlines that the day is an idea and everything encompassed within it “is thinking it, iridescently/and each thought is a spoke/in the solar wheel” (12-14). Heiti then transforms the metaphor of the day into the image of a crocus which in itself is “its own idea of whiteness” (15-16). Heiti compares this concrete image with a theoretical concept, again pointing the reader outside the traditional sphere towards contemplation. Once readers begin to conceive of the ways by which the language of ideas may be understood through metaphor.
Heiti establishes that while that a flower’s manifestation of whiteness may die with it, we can still know the nature of the idea: “The idea dies with it – but/that doesn’t mean it can’t be/known” (18-9). Then, Heiti returns to more concrete images and stimulates the senses as though through appreciation of these tangible materials, one acquires a greater understanding of the world. Heiti imparts sensory detail when expressing how the feeling of coldness may be known through the smell of the “garden hose,” or that the idea of music may be understood through listening to a song “transposed/for the piccolo” (21-23). The reader can effectively picture these images and because of the intellectual leaps that Heiti elicits earlier in the poem, readers observe the strength of his metaphors. Next, Heiti draws upon the way in which apples are representative of “the autumn spectrum” (26). This adds vision to Heiti’s sensory evocation, and it is likely that seeing an apple would also remind readers of an apple’s taste and smell, which brings knowledge of the essence of autumn.
Through “The Day,” Heiti emphasizes the power of language to inspire readers to see the world with more observant and appreciative eyes. When this is done, readers will acquire not only a deeper interpretation of the world around them, but insight to themselves and the lives they are living.
Works Cited (for analysis):
Heiti, Warren. “The Day.” Hydrologos. Toronto: Pedlar Press, 2011.
In “The Day,” Warren Heiti encourages readers to ponder the relationship between abstract language of concepts and the language of tangible, concrete particulars of the everyday, such as apples, a garden hose, or a crocus. Throughout the poem, Heiti questions how one concretizes concepts to express lived experience, and implies that the difficulty of defining and knowing an idea is similar to the difficulty of locating the essence of the day itself, as both are essentially abstractions. He surprises readers by requesting challenging intellectual leaps through the poem, later combining these challenges with effective metaphors to emphasize the miraculous happenings in the everyday. Just as the numerous, fleeting sights or sounds experienced throughout a day form its essence and allows readers to know their environment, so too does Heiti’s dynamic language and metaphor form a bridge between difficult concepts. Readers acquire an appreciation of the restlessness of language and the intellectual vigour of Heiti’s poetry as they traverse “The Day.”
Heiti introduces the theme of language’s restlessness when revealing that the spring light is “palinodic,” refering to a feature of ancient poetry where the fourth strophe repeats the structure of the first, and the third repeats that of the second (1-2). The poet chooses vibrant language to point readers in various directions: both temporally toward the ancient tradition and intellectually to ponder the metaphor in which spring initiates reflection. Heiti supposes that “an idea can’t be/cut up and passed out/like a canvas sail” (8-9). The line break cuts up the uncutable idea and thereby underlines the tension implicit in language and questions how it is possible to unpack and speak about it. He underlines that the day is an idea and everything encompassed within it “is thinking it, iridescently/and each thought is a spoke/in the solar wheel” (12-14). Heiti then transforms the metaphor of the day into the image of a crocus which in itself is “its own idea of whiteness” (15-16). Heiti compares this concrete image with a theoretical concept, again pointing the reader outside the traditional sphere towards contemplation. Once readers begin to conceive of the ways by which the language of ideas may be understood through metaphor.
Heiti establishes that while that a flower’s manifestation of whiteness may die with it, we can still know the nature of the idea: “The idea dies with it – but/that doesn’t mean it can’t be/known” (18-9). Then, Heiti returns to more concrete images and stimulates the senses as though through appreciation of these tangible materials, one acquires a greater understanding of the world. Heiti imparts sensory detail when expressing how the feeling of coldness may be known through the smell of the “garden hose,” or that the idea of music may be understood through listening to a song “transposed/for the piccolo” (21-23). The reader can effectively picture these images and because of the intellectual leaps that Heiti elicits earlier in the poem, readers observe the strength of his metaphors. Next, Heiti draws upon the way in which apples are representative of “the autumn spectrum” (26). This adds vision to Heiti’s sensory evocation, and it is likely that seeing an apple would also remind readers of an apple’s taste and smell, which brings knowledge of the essence of autumn.
Through “The Day,” Heiti emphasizes the power of language to inspire readers to see the world with more observant and appreciative eyes. When this is done, readers will acquire not only a deeper interpretation of the world around them, but insight to themselves and the lives they are living.
Works Cited (for analysis):
Heiti, Warren. “The Day.” Hydrologos. Toronto: Pedlar Press, 2011.
Bibliography
Primary Sources:
Heiti, Warren. "Canto XXVII." Fiddlehead 273 (Autumn 2017): 48.
---. "The Dance of Perception: The Rôle of the Imagination in Simone Weil’s Early Epistemology." Imagination and Art: Explorations in Contemporary Theory. Ed. by Keith Moser and Ananta Ch. Sukla, Leiden: Brill, 2020, 304-331.
---. “Ethics and Domesticity.” Lyric Ecology: An Appreciation of the Work of Jan Zwicky. Eds. Mark Dickinson and Clare Goulet. Toronto: Cormorant Books, 2010. 114-41.
---. The Ethics of Simone Weil and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Thesis. University of Calgary, 2006.
---. "Eros and Necessity.” The New Quarterly 125 (2013): 46-53.
---. “Homeric Hymn to Demeter.” Antigonish Review 160 (2010): 104.
---. Hydrologos. Toronto: Pedlar Press, 2011.
---. "Introduction: What is Lyric Philosophy?" Philosophy and Literature 39 (1): 188-201.
---. "Lyric Details and Ecological Integrity." Ethics and the Environment 22 (1): 89-109.
---. “(metamorphoses, Book V).” Antigonish Review 137 (2004): 120.
---. “Nautical Astrology.” Antigonish Review 160 (2010): 103.
---. "Reading and Character: Weil and McDowell on Naïve Realism and Second Nature." Philosophical Investigations 41 (3): 267-290.
---. "Scorpion." Event. 39.1 (2010): 53.
---. "Sleep." Event. 39.1 (2010): 52.
---. "The Soul in Dialogue With Itself." Fiddlehead 273 (Autumn 2017): 49.
---. “Tennessee Waltz.” Antigonish Review 160 (2010): 102.
Secondary Sources:
Addonizio, Kim, and Jeb Livingood. Best New Poets 2009. Charlottesville: Samovar, 2009.
Crozier, Lorna, and Molly Peacock, eds. The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2010. Toronto: Tightrope Books Inc., 2010.
Crozier, Lorna, ed. Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets. Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2004.
“Warren Heiti.” myweb.dal.ca. Dalhousie University, Faculty of Arts and Social Science: Department of Philosophy, 2009.
“Warren Heiti.” Ukings.ca. University of King’s College, 2009.
“Warren Heiti.” V125PC. Vancouver 125 Poetry Conference, 2011.
“Warren Heiti.” WFNS. Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia, 2012.
“Warren Heiti’s Bio.” atwaterlibrary. Atwater Library and Computer Center, 2009.
Heiti, Warren. "Canto XXVII." Fiddlehead 273 (Autumn 2017): 48.
---. "The Dance of Perception: The Rôle of the Imagination in Simone Weil’s Early Epistemology." Imagination and Art: Explorations in Contemporary Theory. Ed. by Keith Moser and Ananta Ch. Sukla, Leiden: Brill, 2020, 304-331.
---. “Ethics and Domesticity.” Lyric Ecology: An Appreciation of the Work of Jan Zwicky. Eds. Mark Dickinson and Clare Goulet. Toronto: Cormorant Books, 2010. 114-41.
---. The Ethics of Simone Weil and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Thesis. University of Calgary, 2006.
---. "Eros and Necessity.” The New Quarterly 125 (2013): 46-53.
---. “Homeric Hymn to Demeter.” Antigonish Review 160 (2010): 104.
---. Hydrologos. Toronto: Pedlar Press, 2011.
---. "Introduction: What is Lyric Philosophy?" Philosophy and Literature 39 (1): 188-201.
---. "Lyric Details and Ecological Integrity." Ethics and the Environment 22 (1): 89-109.
---. “(metamorphoses, Book V).” Antigonish Review 137 (2004): 120.
---. “Nautical Astrology.” Antigonish Review 160 (2010): 103.
---. "Reading and Character: Weil and McDowell on Naïve Realism and Second Nature." Philosophical Investigations 41 (3): 267-290.
---. "Scorpion." Event. 39.1 (2010): 53.
---. "Sleep." Event. 39.1 (2010): 52.
---. "The Soul in Dialogue With Itself." Fiddlehead 273 (Autumn 2017): 49.
---. “Tennessee Waltz.” Antigonish Review 160 (2010): 102.
Secondary Sources:
Addonizio, Kim, and Jeb Livingood. Best New Poets 2009. Charlottesville: Samovar, 2009.
Crozier, Lorna, and Molly Peacock, eds. The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2010. Toronto: Tightrope Books Inc., 2010.
Crozier, Lorna, ed. Breathing Fire 2: Canada’s New Poets. Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2004.
“Warren Heiti.” myweb.dal.ca. Dalhousie University, Faculty of Arts and Social Science: Department of Philosophy, 2009.
“Warren Heiti.” Ukings.ca. University of King’s College, 2009.
“Warren Heiti.” V125PC. Vancouver 125 Poetry Conference, 2011.
“Warren Heiti.” WFNS. Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia, 2012.
“Warren Heiti’s Bio.” atwaterlibrary. Atwater Library and Computer Center, 2009.
