La nuit de Noël was my first written work to be published. It may have also been my first poem, as I do not recall ever writing others prior to that. If I did, they have been long-lost with time.

This likely took place in late November or early December of 1998, during my fifth year of elementary school attending École Primaire Émile-Nelligan in Kirkland, Quebec, Canada. My teacher was Denise Larente and it was a sort of “special” split-grade class, where half of the class were fifth graders, the other half were sixth graders and they had some sort of advanced teaching program. There were about 25 students in the class. Each of us were given the task of writing a Christmas-themed poem.

I have a vague recollection of being unhappy having to write a poem in class. It was a forced assignment and I have a memory of going up to my teacher and saying that I didn’t know what to write, perhaps even handing in a half-assed poem and being sent back to my desk to have another go at it. Perhaps this is a memory of another assignment, completely unrelated to this poem, but it would make sense because the poem that I finally handed in was filled with cliches and I did not take it seriously. I also vaguely remember my teacher saying “see what you can do when you apply yourself” after giving her the second one. Although I was too young to realize that I had an artistic ambition, this was clearly a commissioned work, and not an emotional piece from my heart.

All of the poems from our class, and the other “regular” fifth grade classes in the school, were sent down to be read and judged. I am sure that all of the fifth grade classes were part of this “contest”, but I cannot recall if other grades were participating as well. I also cannot recall if the contest was planned ahead of our writing, or only came up afterwards, but it certainly was no motivational factor for me. The prize was that the winning poem would be published in a local newspaper around Christmas.

The poem was published in the local and biggest newspaper of the West Island, Cités Nouvelles / City News, which was based in Sainte-Geneviève at the time.

https://web.archive.org/web/20010219105141/http://www.citesnouvelles.com/le_journal.wdi

15716 boul. Gouin Ouest
Sainte-Geneviève, Québec H9H 1C4

Printed and distributed by Groupe Transcontinental G.T.C. Ltée in Ville Saint Laurent
GTC bought out Publications Dumont in 1996, which previously owned the newspaper, so in 1998 it was for sure owner by GTC)

Managed at Hebdos Transcontinental located at 5600 Henri Bourassa Est (phone 321-2000)

https://web.archive.org/web/19990203024222/http://transcontinental-gtc.com/htmlfr/hebdos.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/19990506105805/http://transcontinental-gtc.com/htmlfr/fcoup.htm

 

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https://www.biwi.qc.ca/biwi/1/102171.shtml

https://www.biwi.qc.ca/biwi/2/288482.shtml

In 2001 it relocated to Dollard-Des-Ormeaux

3677 Boul. Des Sources,
Dollard des Ormeaux, Québec, H9B 2T6

https://web.archive.org/web/20010801015711/http://www.citesnouvelles.com:80/le_journal.wdi

Around 2010 it relocated to Dorval

455 boul. Fenelon, Suite 303
Dorval, H9S 5T8

https://web.archive.org/web/20110720125511/http://www.citesnouvelles.com/Contactez-nous

 

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The newspaper had two variants that were published weekly, which were not necessarily French and Eglish but more or less the same newspaper but with 4-8 pages (2 spreads) that were altered to serve the area in which the paper was distributed (for free door-to-door). The ads or articles may have differed based on where it was going (some people would take out ads newspaper-wide, others for just one sector). There was a north and south edition but after speaking with Marc Forget, the director at the time, he said that one probably couldn’t tell the difference between the two even from the front page. So the version that we received at my parents’ place in Pierrefonds was a different edition from the one that my maternal grand-parents received at their house in Dollard-des-Ormeaux.

 

2 versions de la page 8, examples

4 ou 8 pages differentes

 

According to the limited archives of Cités Nouvelles / City News held at the BANQ, they only have the “north” version which was the same in Pierrefonds. In their version, other poems from other students of both Emile Nelligan (including one co-written by two girls from the sixth grade portion of my class) and another elementary school in Saint Genevieve were published in the late December 1998 issues, notably the December 20 and December 27 (dates to confirm) issues, with the same layout and format. So it means that I was in no way the sole winner of this contest, but just one of many selected for publication in the newspaper. It seems more likely that one poem from each of the 5 and 6 grades were selected for publication.

 

My poem was selected as the best from my class and went out for publication along with my 1998 school-year picture. I was extremely shy back then, and not very popular, so I do not recall having any praise from my peers and fellow students. In fact I seem to remember that they were a bit angry that I won. I also don’t seem to remember being proud of it. It’s possible that any memory of pride over this achievement is overshadowed by guilt since this was a forced assignment and never felt sincere to me. It was not until about fifteen years later that I recalled this poem, when I found it in boxes of my school material, and it had never been used to showcase my talent or achievements when applying for schools or jobs.

I also do not have any memory of my parents keeping a copy of the newspaper after it was published. This is possibly because their delivered version did not include it, but I feel like they could have obtain one elsewhere. I was able to find newspaper clippings of my poem in both of my grandmothers’ archives. Obviously my maternal grand-mother got a copy delivered at her home, but my paternal grand-parents must have either been given a copy or went out of their way to get one from somewhere in the West Island. I have a distant memory of being disappointed that it had not been published in the newspaper (at the time I probably did not know that two variants were printed), and being very sad about it while in the car with my parents and sisters, and being on the way to my maternal grand-parents’ house, and my mother saying something like “don’t worry your grand-parents have it” or “let’s see if it’s in the one that your grand-parents got”. I kind of feel like at the time, I thought it was this foreign publication from two towns over and the people from my school wouldn’t even know about it since it was not in the local one.

In addition to the newspaper, it was also “published” locally for our class. Our teacher Denise printed each of our poems (for the 25 or so students in the class) on textured paper and arranged them in a Duo-Tang folder with an artwork. I’d say there were between 25 and 30 copies made by our teacher. In professional terms, I guess she was the editor.

 

Sous un sapin de Noël,
Qui brille comme des étincelles.
Des cadeaux et des grelots
Scintillent jusqu’en haut.

Des guirlandes argentées
Décorent des paysages enneigés
Des ruban dorés
Entourent une cheminée.

À la messe de minuit,
Une bougie luit.
Sous des feuilles de houx
Des amoureux se donnent des bisous.

Chez nous à Noël
C’est une merveille
Car j’ai des parents sans pareil.

Avec papa
J’ai de la joie
Avec maman
Je suis content
Mais les deux en même temps
C’est bien plus amusant.