A Grave Garden: Aritha van Herk's Calgary

Abstract

In her long poem Calgary, This Growing Graveyard, Aritha van Herk presents the cemetery as a public garden of critical reflection within the rapidly changing urban environment of Calgary, Alberta. Foregrounding the simultaneous processes of growth and decay, van Herk suggests that the cemetery as garden becomes symbolic not only of the city’s successive generations, but also of the ongoing creation, destruction, and recreation of the city’s physical-cultural landscape. First published in 1987, Calgary, This Growing Graveyard captures the “boom and bust” economy of Calgary following the implementation of Canada’s National Energy Program in 1980. Now in 2007, van Herk’s poem turns prophetic as Calgarians experience the growing pains that coincide with a lucrative economy, mass migration, and urban sprawl.