• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About The Charity Report
    • Editorial
    • The Charity Report: Frequently Asked Questions
  • Bespoke Research About Charities
  • Contact The Charity Report
  • Log In

The Charity Report

... creating a space that gets people talking

Shop Intelligence Reports
  • Photo Essay
  • Reports and Features
  • News
  • Headlines
  • Literary Circle
    • Literary Circle Review Panel
  • Book Shop
  • TalkingUP Podcast

What Comes from the Spirit: The exquisitely balanced voice of Richard Wagamese

By Kathleen Adamson October 18, 2021

Richard Wagamese

What Comes from the Spirit, Richard Wagamese with introduction by Drew Hayden Taylor, Douglas & McIntyre, September 18, 2021, 176 pp., $24.70

This new collection of short works by Richard Wagamese is the third book published since he died in 2017. The pieces within are gathered from the full span of his life, including some of his observations collected from social media. The collection is excellent, and well placed to introduce new readers to Wagamese’s body of work.

Wagamese’s writing voice is exquisitely balanced. His descriptive lyricism sings to the senses, “From my window I watch the sure and elegant creep of the sun across the pine pocked flank of the mountain. Beneath it the mercury platter of the lake and the undulation of the land dancing down to meet it at the reeds where the red-winged black birds sing. The sky is a bowl the colour of old denim.”

But there is depth beyond the poetry—Wagamese describes the interior experience of writing, thinking, and dreaming with a humble but practiced ease. His writing is restrained but not minimalist, thoughtful but not obscure.

The meditative pieces in this book have a devotional quality, “True silence is calm being. True silence is appreciating the moment for the moment. Every breath a connection to my life force, my essence,”  seem meant for rumination. 

Drew Hayden Taylor’s charming introduction to the book warns the reader, “…don’t read it too fast. Soak it in. Enjoy every morsel. Linger on each page because every paragraph has nuggets of understanding.” 

Richard Wagamese at the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival in 2013, photographed by Dan Harasymchuk

No book has all the answers, but Wagamese’s reflections present a hopeful and compassionate set of values. They feel like a nourishing meal for the heart, with all five flavours present—sweet, bitter, salty, sour, and something umami, important but hard to pin down. He flows through many topics—the importance of children’s education, his brutal encounters with the police, retellings of traditional Ojibwe tales that do not end with the European settlement of Canada, hilarious riffs on how to dress like an Indigenous person, his sadness at the lost traditions of Indigenous people in Canada. On this last subject, Wagamese sums up what is truly at stake in the Canadian ‘reconciliation’ process—not moral or political absolution, but the potential extinction of hundreds of entire peoples. 

”The saddest image I carry in my mind is that of the last surviving Indian being asked why it is that he or she has no knowledge of the people and where they came from. And the response. Because I had no one to teach me and I did not understand.”  

Fundamentally, Wagamese’s perspective is one of presence, of finding spiritual inspiration and guidance in nature, and in the small tasks of life. 

In a world of relentlessly flowing information, the affirmation of the present moment is a useful one. He writes, “The only extraordinary thing I’ve done is to never allow the mistakes of my past to discolour or erode my hope for the future. Because it’s not the big things that add up in the end; it’s the hundreds, thousands, millions of little things we do on a regular basis that define our lives as extraordinary.”

This book was my introduction to Richard Wagamese. When I started reading, I was so excited that I inhaled it quickly. But now that I’ve written this review, I’m going to read it again, and this time, I’m going to take Taylor’s advice –  to soak it in and enjoy every morsel.

In recognition of the mentorship Richard Wagamese showed to emerging writers, part of the publisher’s proceeds from this book will be given to the Indigenous Voices Awards to support the next generation of Indigenous literary talent.

Kathleen Adamson is a musician, composer, academic, and community activist based in Montreal, Canada.

More reviews from Kathleen Adamson

Jigging for Halibut with Tsinii: Its relatively still waters run deep September 24, 2021

Deaths of Despair: how the flaws in capitalism are fatal for America’s working class September 9, 2021

Ivan Coyote: Bringing stories of fierce love and community building August 30, 2021

On Time and Water by Andri Snær Magnason made me feel better about climate, ‘if such a thing is possible’ July 21, 2021

Marcus Aurelius: No abstracted ponderer July 8, 2021

Information, the Book: Editors’ efforts have borne excellent fruit June 28, 2021

Hannah Arendt: Deeply influential 20th century thinker embodies contradiction, passion and a proximity to history May 23, 2021

Benjamin Miller: Very rarely does an author take political theory and interpret it with such relevance and clarity May 13, 2021

Filed Under: Literary Circle Tagged With: Drew Hayden Taylor, Richard Wagamese, The Charity Report

Primary Sidebar

Literary Circle Newsletter

Literary Circle Reviews

Heroin: What came first—the suffering or the criminalization?

June 20, 2022 By Literary Circle

The Smart NonProfit : Staying Human-Centred in an Automated World 

June 20, 2022 By Literary Circle

Is America’s next civil war already in progress?

March 14, 2022 By Literary Circle

Nora Loreto and her book Spin Doctors are here to tell us how we got here

January 24, 2022 By Literary Circle

Cid Brunet, A Stripper’s Memoir: One woman’s tour through humankind

December 20, 2021 By Literary Circle

Wayne Simpson: Photos of the human soul

December 16, 2021 By Literary Circle

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Footer

About

Our beat is justice and equity in the charity sector. We follow news of the day, highlight people doing amazing work and conduct new research that sheds light on the forces driving the sector. The Charity Report TalkingUP podcast, hosted by editor in chief Gail Picco, interviews authors and journalists wbo have lots to say about the issues facing our time.  This is a place where independent thinking is valued, questions about the charity sector are asked and our independence is fiercely guarded. The guardians of that space are our Subscribers and Patrons who provide the financial support to pay writers, editors, researchers, producers, and content providers. We adore them.

Learn more.

Recent

  • The Charity Report Ceases Publication 
  • The Cost of Conflict: How we measure the global failure in Syria
  • Where Wealth Resides: The funding of philanthropy in Canada
  • Who Give and Who Gets: The Beneficiaries of Private Foundation Philanthropy
  • Community Giving: The Growth and Giving Priorities of Community Foundations

Search

Copyright © 2023 The Charity Report · Log in