A s · Elected el ec te ri ti n N ic ho l I PS 8527 132 A6 1980 • • • • As Elected Selected Writing 1962-1979 • , • • , • • • • • \ copyrig ht © 1980 bpNicho l Introduc tion copyrig ht © 1980 Jack David published with assistance from the Canada Council • • • • Talon books 201101 9 East Cordova Vancouver British Columbia V6A 1MB Canada Talon books P. 0. Box 42720 Los Angeles California 90042 U.S.A. This book was typeset at the Coach House Press, designed by bpNicho l and Nel~on Adams and printed by Friesen for Talonbooks. PAI NTED IN CA NADA First printing : Octobe r 1980 . Series editor: Karl Siegler Canadian Catalogui ng in Publicatio n Data Nichol, B. P., 1944Selected writing Bibliograp hy: p. 140 ISBN 0-88922-1 76-6 (pbk .) I. David, Jack, 1946- 11 . Tit Ie : As eIe ct e d PS8527 .135A6 1980 C818 '.5408 PR9199.3 .N53A6 1980 • C81-0910 50-0 • 0 0 co 0 5 n 0 0 0 G G 0 ,, 11 0 5 57 I 5 0 0 0 00 , olo Scraptures: seven th sequence - from Nights On Prose Moun tain 87 from 'Andy ' - from Two Novels 90 Gorg , a detec tive story - from Craft Dinn er 94 Two Heroes - from Craft Dinn er 95 I Twins - a histo ry - from Craft Dinn er 100 from Journ al 102 Two Word s : A Wed ding - previ ously unco llecte d 107 Lust (a little play) - previ ously unpu blish ed 109 Nam ing 3 - previ ously unpu blish ed 110 • Probable Systems 9 - from ZYGAL: A Book of Mysteries & Translations 111 Probable Systems 21 - previ ously unpu blish ed 113 from Catul lus poem XXVl l I' - previ ously unco llecte d 116 The Word s - Mont agna is India n - previ ously unco llecte d 118 Chan t to the Fi re-Fly - previ ously unpu blish ed 120 • Trans lating Apoll inaire - from Translating Translating Apoll inaire TTA 32/N egati ves 4 - previ ously unpu blish ed 121 122 a poem by bill bisse tt - previ ously unco llecte d 123 • Three Foun d Poems with David Aylw ard - previ ously unco llecte d . 127 from 'A Colla borat ion' with Wayne .Cliffo rd - previ ously unco llecte d 127 from 'In England Now That Sprin g' with Steve Mcca ffery . - from In England Now That Spring 132 Partic ular Musi c - previ ously unco llecte d 133 from 'Sorr ow Laid As Th is One' (as part of the Toro nto Research Grou p) with Co-A ccide nt - previ ously unco llecte d 136 from 'The Body: In Darkn ess' with Steve Mcca ffery • - previ ously unpu blish ed 137 6 - Maps - previously unpublished 138 Bibliography 140 • 7 • • • I • I • • • • • • I • ' Introduction l n 197 5 I had an ide a for a boo k : a sele ctio n of poe try from bpN ich ol . So I wro te to Nic hol and asked for his per mis sio n to go ahead . He wro te back i'm ver y mu ch aga ins t the ide a. thin gs are stil l in pro gre ss. wa it till i'm 45 the n i'll hav e som eth ing to ' select from . i wa nt to find wh ere all the res ear ch lea ds me. Lat er, how eve r, he cha nge d his min d. I use d to bel iev e tha t wh en you turn ed fort y-fi ve, you aut om atic ally bec am e a ma ster. It see me d a lon g tim e awa y, at the tim e. As I cra wl thro ugh my thir ties , I see tha t tha t is wro ng. Al I of one 's life in fac t one is sim ply in the pro ces s of lea rnin g. It's she er ma dne ss to thin k tha t you arri ve at som e com ple te poi nt in you r life tim e. In fac t you die . 1 As Elected is a sam plin g of Nic hol 's wo rk, and is not me ant to free ze his wri ting in tim e, but to sug ges t - at an arb itra ry mo me nt - wh at he is up to . Nic h ol is an exp lore r in 1 lan gua ge; he says abo ut his wri ting tha t if i hav e a gen era l the m,e it's the lan gua ge trap tha t run s thru the cen tre of eve ry- th 1 i ng i do. in this reg ard bill bis set t firs t poi nte d the dire ctio n wit h a poe m cal led 'Th ey Fou nd th Wa gon Ca t 'i n Hu ma n Bod y'. 9 hence style is disrega rded in favor of reprodu ction of actual states of min d in order to follow these states thru the particul ar 1 traps they become in search of possibl e exits. 1 hence for me the1 re is no discrep ancy to pass back an d forth between trad 1 poetry, concret e poetr~, sound poetry, film, comic strips, the novel or what have you in order to reprodu ce the muse that musses up my own brai ,n . 2 Born in Vancou ver on Septem ber 30, 1944, Nichol went to the Univers ity of British Columb ia , and Worked as a grade 4 pub I ic schoo l teach,e r for part of a year: quit that and moved to toronto where i became involve d 1 with the problem s of inter and intra persona l commu nication . 3 His influenc es were Chester Gould's 'Dick Tracy,' Walt Kelly's 'Pogo,' & Winsor McKay' s 'Dream s of A Rarebit Fiend' & ' Little Nemo in Slumbe rland.' In additio n the poetry of O .lson and Creeley, e.e. cummin gs, gertrud e stein & james joyce, rube goldber g, & the children 's books by Dr. Seuss. 4 As a teenage r, Nichol 'loved Keats' as well as D.H . Lawren ce and Kennet h Patchen . It was about then that I started to get into Creeley and Ginsbe rg. The person who particu larly impress ed me at that time was Lew Welch and some of Philip Whalen 's things. I was into the visual thing from Patchen - through his poem- drawing s - and around that time, a friend of mine, James Alexand er, introdu ced me to some of the Dada people & Apollinaire. I was reading a lot of Chinese poetry in translat ion. I was reading a lot of West Coast Indian poetry.... Al I that stuff. 5 Around 1963 Nichol began to investig ate concret e poetry as a result of his explora tions in Dada, Gertrud e Stein, Patchen , Earle Birney, Pierre Coupey and bill bissett. But. it wasn 't until 1965 that Nichol came into contact with other poets through out the world workin g in similar ways. I'm doing it [con,c 1 r ete 10 ro D In I I 0 b D D I I I I I 0 0 .. I J I o h1n 0 th I bu h do d dn't tter 1n, I PD 0 1 I c:ould b co 1~ p nd co pl nc , I thou ht; 0 cc s~on of r h po I sort of made a conscio us choice to play. The very first concret e that I did was a thing called 'Po pular Song'; it was black and red 1 an1 d then red and black. It was a conscious decisio n to play. The poem goes: WARBLED WARBLED Here I was. I was ty ping poe ms but I wasn't pay1 i1 ng atte ntion to the page. So I 1 1 1 began to do it and I started with these things I called 'ideopo mes'. They were very much that, very much base1 d on 1 typewri ter things .... I found I had learned so m1 uch by d oing 1 1 visual poetry; it was like l' d done eye- cleanin g exercise s; I 1 1 could actually 'see' the goddam n page and I 1 re,alize d that every 1 word couin ted, that before lird just been dumpin g on the 1 page. 8 2 The writing include d in this book has been chosen from Nichol 's publish ed and unpubli shed work . We had two thougt1 ts in mind about the organiz ation : first, follow a strict chrono logic I order based on the date of compos ition ; second , arbitrar ily divide the writing into groups accordi ng to formal propert ies . l1 n the end, we decided that while a chronol ogical structur e would suggest certain pattern s in Nichol's develop ment, thie groupin g approac h would be more benefic ial to new readers . So the organiz ation follows a d etinite pattern : we begin w ith 1 visual poetry, progres sing from the use of 1 i ndividu al letters , to words, to distinct shapes on the page . Then comes sound poetry (in its written form) for one voice only. Next are poem s which combiil e visual and traditio nal lyric qualitie s, lead ing 12 into an exce rpt from The Marty rolog y - a poem which tries to integ rate the eye and the ear, sight and sound . There follow s a select ion of prose writin gs, a short play, some uncategorizable 1 writin gs, trans lation s, found poem s, collaborations, soun d poem collab oratio ns, and Maps. My com1 ments and N ichol's follow the order in the book, tho 1 ugh not all the poems are discussed. 3 ' Nicho l has said, at readi ngs, that his favou rite letter is H; in 'H (an alphh abet) ', the basic H is used to re-cre ate the alpha bet. The next poem uses the letter Q to explo re letter overl ays. In a way, the thing that I woul d most compare it to is 'Nude Descending a Staircase' by Duchamp. I was interested in the play of the light throu gh the letters and what happened to the form of a letter when it overl appe d with itself. So I woul d compare it to that and to Dr. Seuss's 'On Beyond Zebra' where he goes on beyond 'z' and into the other letters. 9 As each of the letter s is draw n, there is a conti nuing theoretical state ment being made aroun d the letters: Poetry being at a dead end poetr y is dead. Hav'i ng accepted this fact we are free to live the poem .... what has been cons tant till now have been the artific ial boun darie s we have placed on the poem. We must put the poem in our lives by freein g it from the necessity to lbe. The poem will live again when we accept finall y the fact of the poem's death. Nicho l's inten tion in 'Blues' can be ascer taine d from his poem , 'Capt ain Poetr y: In Love .' love I spelled backwards I is evol I is I 'nature's Way (i've I overw orked it I in a dozen I poems) has I - 13 noth ing to do I with evil I but rath er evo lves I new them es.' m t s 0f o VO Iu I 0 ti 1ct1ol 1s f 0 c t1 r o lo 1 o ol 1 p ns rumer1 or er at1 g o ncI ud 1n g t t1 s 1z nd st1 pe of t t1 y p , ti c r r 1 g , t t1 e r g uI r 1 y of 11 e p c 1 g , r1 d t1 p t 1c , you c n yp . Tt1 dv nt ge 1s, for Nich ol, t1 t each cha ract er 1 occu pies exa ctly the sam e space as any othe r character.... thu the mos t succ essf ul poe ms as far as any defi nitio n of typewrit er poe ms in particu~ar goe s are thos e whi ch ack now ledg e & wor k with this fact . This 1s pate n ly rue w1 , N1ct1ol' r o poe m whic h r11a ches he wor d's me r11ng with t 1 st1 p o tt1 poem. But type wr 1t r poems c n lso succe d by wor king aga inst the geo met rica l exa ctne ss of the type writ er usin g a deli bera tely dist urbe d typi ng in whi ch line s wea ve acro ss one ano ther in brok en fash ion phra ses beg inni ng & stop ping premat urel y and wor ds mis spe lt erro rs left inta ct & any aes thet ic of des ign deli bera tely avo ided . 10' Nich ol onc es I c d 'T 1 End of the Affa ir' as his favo urite poe m . He recalls th t1r11 wt1 r1 J1 Nro te the poe m . this day was a bum mer . i was righ t out of it as i reca ll with aff ecti on the spac ed out eye ball s & heavy brea th1 ing as i whacked out 'the end of the affa ir' on my trus ty roya l port able . my roya l port able was brea thin g hard too with all thos e g's & S's & infin itely chanted ORG AN ORG AN ORG AN ORG AN ORG AN ORG AN ORG AN ORG AN. infin ite was the key wor d. i mus t've done a doz en draf ts of this poe m befo re it turn ed out. g g-0 goi goin goin g. & the bum mer was gon e. that 's the esse ntia l reas on for this cho ice. 11 Many of Nich ol 's poem are mom enta ry, eph eme ral, and unp olish ed. In a soci e y of inst ant food , inst ant lear ning and inst ant pleasure, why no 14 • instant poetry? Added to A Condensed History of Nothing (which is a small mimeog raphed folder/p amphle t) is the following: lovingly laboure d over No. 39 brough t .to you by the same great press that's been produci ng instant garbage for the nation's wasteba skets lo these last five years. The poem is a couple of blank pages. In 1963 Nichol worked at the Univers ity of Toronto Library. It impress ed me with the narcissi sm of much literatur e. It took away from me the illusion that I was simply, by writing books, going to change the world .... when you spend day after day. under the dusty stacks of the ~ell. meant words of millions of people, it changes your view of I I iteratur e and what the point of it is. 12 Perhaps such an experience led him to this kind of stateme nt in 'Allegor y No. 6': . Words as they are are simply words are simply words are simply words .... What can the poet do, then, having conclt1ded that words are simply words? For one thing, he can begin to explore further the interior of letters; to discove r that an 8 on ' its side produces the symbol for infinity, or, in 'Allegor y No. 6', to probe behind the solid front of the letter D and uncove r a world with clouds, birds and a face peering over a fence. In I Aleph Unit Nichol combin es the techniq ues of poetry with those of the comic strip. For Nichol, the comic strip is a totally differen t set of narrativ e conven tions and a totally differen t set of linguist ic conven tions that cuts across languag e barriers. It's the univers al languag e system that's already extant. It can be used very powerfu lly. 13 Every picture tells a story and every story is a succession of events. A man sitting on a dock thinl Thus, for Nichol, two main compon ents - sight and sound 15 • I ) ' make up language. Exaggerate one elemen t or the other, and traditio nalists might accuse you of gimmic kry: 'that can't be poetry because it doesn't look/ sauna like poetry.' But sound poetry is not simply fooling around, though it can at times take on the aspects of play, for when )tO'' r 1 1t av1ay the lin~ar • sequen tial ideation anguag e you cut awa QUr own founda - tions. It is a frustrat ing often frighten ing avenue of express ion which can release primitiv e elemen ts in both the poet & his audienc e. 14 Imagine a drum and a wheel. The drum keeps up a fairly regular beat, and the wheel just rolls along: three words • per line, four letters, four letters, and five letters. 'Drum and a Wheel' is a cyclical poem that must be read aloud to achieve its full effect. Better still, listen to Nichol reading the poem on his record, 'border s' (an insert in bp - now out of print) . • Sound poetry is crucial for Nichol because it can free the emotio nal content of speech from ideation or from words, necessarily, and [it is] able to let out the voice. And once the voice has been let out, then the words [will] ... follow. I always go back to that Palonga hoya legend, you know. Palonga hoya's job was to open his mouth and to sing the praises of the creator. And if he did that, then the vibrato ry axis of the c~smos and everyth ing was in harmon y, see? But ... people ... got tricked by Raven and they began to use speech as a way of talking inside their teepees to each other. And this was a false use of it. Eventu ally he who l creates everyth ing comes down and bumps them all off for misuse of voice. 15 Imagine you're on a train, and out the window you see the letter i turn into the letter r. Movem ent alters shape, speed blurs, but there can also be upside- down versions. When you're gazing at the clouds, shapes of objects begin to assert themselves - so why not letters as well? ,.. 16 •, • Such passive contemplation while the world spins around you can be likened to zen-type meditation . The posing of paradoxical questions, such as in 'the old man ... ,' leads the mind to a dead end; there can be no logical conclusion. Where reason fails, emotion must take over, and this is what Nichol attempts to do. We have grown accustomed to seeing words as symbols only; now let the words be visual symbols and objects. This is Nichol's interpretation of allegory - to speak otherwise than one seems to speak. Here, the letters look otherwise than they seem to look. In the search for the perfect poem, I would enter blob PIOP Observe the clean horizontal line, the exact mirror image, the semantic contiguity of top and bottom. Given these elemerits, could the poem be improved? Or, in another poem, could the missing p underscore the emptiness any better (em ty)? The lack of a letter creates meaning; so, likewise, the position of two words - 'moon' and 'owl' - creates a 'shadowy' area. The clear night in the woods, the owl, the sounds, the ambience. A small delicate miniature of a poem, a minimal poem which does not attempt a great deal, but which accomplishes all that it can .. Nichol regards as the key to new writing ... that ... you create a new reality - and this can be formal, this can be content - ... you create something which mirrors a new reality. One which does not exist. Th is became very clear to Nichol one morning when he saw some crocuses comi:ig up through the ground. I realized that I had never had the urge to rush home and write a poem about crocuses. Rather I wanted to literally create poems 17 • tha t we re crocuses. Th at had the ir ow n thi ng , tha t bu rst for th an d we re bra nd ne w in the ms elv es . 16 In dis cus sin g the wo rk of , • James Reaney, Nic ho l argues tha t rea ne y com es clo se to wr itin g wr itin g he has fin all y do ne in his po etr y wh at he has do ne in his pla ys wh ich is to say he has ma de the m se lf-s uff icie nt • the y ex ist as ob jec ts in the real wo rld . 17 Nic ho l's ab ilit y to wr ite in a va rie ty of for ms has ma de his readers slo we r to acc ep t him , because as soon as so me on e go t used to lab ell ing him as a visual po et or a so un d po et, he wo uld the n tur n up wi th a prose na rra tiv e o·r in a sou nd gro up co lla bo rat ion So I'v e lite ral ly ha d the se dif fer en t phases for wh ich I've been kn ow n. An d de pe nd ing on the pe rio d of tim e pe op le loo k dis co mf ite d wh en I read so me thi ng s, an d rea lly ha pp y wh en I read the stu ff I'm kn ow n for at the mo me nt. Do es n't ma tte r. 18 At on e tim e, he was kn ow n for his Ca pta in Po etr y poems, bu t it is a mi sta ke to eq ua te Ca pta in Po etr y wi th bp Nic ho l. (In cid en tal ly, yo u wil l dis cov er a reference to Ca pta in P in Mi ch ae l On da atj e's The Collected Works of Bil ly the Kid on page 84. Nic ho l's The True Eventual Story of Bil ly the Kid was pu blis he d at ab ou t the same tim e as On da atj e's po em , an d On da atj e ma de a gre at mo vie ab ou t Nic ho l called Sons of Captain Poetry.) If thi s co llec tio n of • Nic ho l's wr itin g has a ful cru m, the n the ex ce rpt fro m The Plunke tt Papers is it: a lyr ic wh ich deals wi th the the me of de ath in a • tra dit ion al, .na rra tiv e style. No tic e, ho we ver , tha t the sp elli ng is un co nv en tio na l - coz for 'cause, & for an d - an d tha t the re are no ca pit al let ter s em plo ye d. Im ag ine thi s po em wi th cap ita l let ter s and usual pu nc tua tio n: wo uld it be alt ere d? Pro ba bly , no t. Then wh y no t use the m? This is pa rt of a lar ge r qu es tio n tha t Nic ho l co nti nu all y gra pp les wit h, the qu es tio n of us ing wh at has preceded yo u wh ile sim ult an eo us ly be ing 'ou t on some kin d of fro nti er. ' 19 In the tw o poems fro m Mo no Tones·, - 18 J ' • Nichol cuts back the undergrowth of language, and in so doing examines the composition of the words themselves. 'terra' leads to 'thera' and to 'the one ra.' In a similar fashion, 'follow' leads to 'flow.' Unlike the poem about death remembered from childhood, this is a poem that takes place right in front of you, on the page. This is not a poem recollected in tranquility, but a poem uncovered on the white paper. It is a quiet, meditative poem, as is 'L.' The title of the book, Mono Tones, hints at its I ' -· one-dimension al qualities of sound and hue, and the poems • themselves are the kind you might construct after a 'walk in the woods.' • We now move into what Nichol considers his most important work to date, The Martyrology. . The section excerpted is entitled Coda: Mid-Initial Sequence which is a take on· the letter p. 20 I began to catch a glimpse of, to see a word as a sentence that said things about single letters. That is to say, the word word for instance becomes word. That's a balanced • structure. w is four letters from one end, d is four 1-etters from • the other end. But it's reversed and there's that 'or' - an element of choice - so that In Book IV what begins to happen is those sorts of structures where the word is read as a sentence. 21 The Martyrology is Nichol's long, 6pen-er.1ded poem that grows and changes. It's a journal also ... I have no final master-plan for it. I think that would be a failure in conception on my part. If you don't reach it by the time y'o u're dead, you lose the race. 22 The Martyrology began for Nichol when he was writing the Scraptures series. I was beginning· to write these rhetorical, often didactic pieces in which I started to address the saints. I was really raving in them, really screaming - very manifesto tone - talking about concerns re: language (by language, I mean here the commerce that takes place between people - the exchange). The saints began to tak~ on rn~:·e flesh 19 ~ I and bl oo d fo r me . This wh ol e wo rld had gr ow n up fo r me around th e saints - ac tu al ly based on fantasy I had wh en I was a kid: th at th e real wo rld was up in the ·sky where th e saints liv ed and th at we were bu t passing ou r lif e in th e sea of air. In .many ways 'The M ar ty ro lo gy ' is a ve ry schizzy book. The narrator, me, is ou t of it in Book I. A lo t of it is addressed ve ry personally to th e saints. In Book II you see th e move away fro m kin d of le an in g on wh at ev en tu al ly began to appear to be th e false figures of th e saints: th at it wa sn 't th e saints at all I was addressing, it was m ys el f I was ta lk in g to , parts of myself, voices and th at these were also di ffe re nt m oo ds wi th in m ys el f I was 'evocating.' . No w th e m ai n th in g in wr iti ng 'The M ar ty ro l- og y' is th at I ha ve n' t had conscious co nt ro l of its di re ct io n, it's · so m et hi ng th at has gr ow n. I've fe lt ve ry much ag ai ns t a certain vi ew of ar t wh ic h ends up always ty in g th in gs together, wh ic h • struck me as to ta lly no t lik e lif e and wh at I wa nt ed in m y wr iti ng were fo rm s wh ic h ar tic ul at e th e wo rld as I'm aware of it; th e wo rld as I ac tu al ly en co un te r ... to no t si m pl y pl ug in to forms. If you read 'The M ar ty ro lo gy ' th e progress fro m Book I has also been fo rm al progress - there's .a change in th e le ng th of line, th e ty pe of rh yt hm , th e ty pe of sounds in th e piece. In Book Ill th at becomes even more pronounced. W ha t's happenin g in Book IV is th at in a sense th e process of br ea kin g do wn th e language th at I was in to in th e early years is ha pp en in g bu t I'm re co m bi ni ng - I'm be gi nn in g to lo ok at wo rd s as sentences th at say th in gs ab ou t th e sin gl e letters. 23 In a wa y yo u' re const an tly br ou gh t back to the surfaces of th e poem. You're dr ive n do wn in to the language, yo u' re driven even fu rth er in to th e 20 \ '1 • ... other side of some thing . I don't know wher e that's going to go . It's there as an elem ent. But you have to look at the poem, you have to be able to see it as I'm readi ng it - other wise half of it flows by. Like a good piece of music, a good poem s_h ould be _. - re-readable many times . You shou ld hear some thing differ ent every time. So that's there in 'The Mart yrolo gy' 'cause I have a lot of differ ent levels of meaning. I broug ht in a horre ndou s degree of personal reference in 'The Marty rolog y.' My justifica tion for that grow s out of an experience I've often had of • walk ing down the stree t and maki ng eyeball conta ct with - someone. Very briefl y I get this whol e impre ssion of them but then I never see the person again. I bring in names in that same way. Mayb e they' ll come up again, maybe they won' t. It's irrele vant. They 're there - the impre ssion they make on you is the reason they' re there for that perio d of time. And so that is all thrus ting befor e along with the central themes of 'The Mar- . tyrolo gy' whic h are them es aroun d what is the place of i in the colle ctive we - 'cause my basic belie f is that the i, in a certain sense, rs useless - the we is every thing . It's the colle ctive activ ity that makes the differ ence in the long run. It's the whol e discussion of the immo rtalit y game as it appli es to write rs. There's no point in it. It's really what happens to the race that's most impo rtant . Balanced again st the realiz ation that that recognit ion of the we cann ot mean an erasure of the i - 'cause if you erase the i you have no we. So how do you make that balance? The ques tion of balance comes to the front again when discussing the differ ence betw een prose and poetry. The next part of As Elected contains selections from a varie ty of Nichol's prose writin g. But before exam ining that writin g, it . may prove useful to discuss whet her there is a distin ction betw een prose and poetry. Acco rding to Nicho l, It's actua lly a visual distin ction . And it has to do with the type of line, that is 21 I to say, pro se ten ds to be a mu ch mo re talky, mu ch mo re dis cu r- sive, less imagistic, less tig htl y im ag ist ic type of wr itin g tha t vis ua lly is arr an ge d in a pa rtic ula r wa y on the page. No w the re' s no reason it has. to be arr an ge d tha t way. The ma in . reasons are typ og rap hic al - the y have to do wi th the lim ita tio ns of the bo ok an d no t wi th the wr itin g its elf .... There's a reason for the lef t-h an d ma rgi n an d the re' s a reason for the rig ht- ha nd ma rgi n in po etr y. 25 But for m alone is no t the co mple te an sw er; in prose, argues Nic ho l, There's the po ss ibi lity for pla yin g aro un d wi th characters an d all tho se thi ng s. I thi nk thi s is pu rel y pe rso na l - I'v e ten de d to use po etr y as a me diu m of se lf-e xp res sio n. An d tra dit ion all y in prose, yo u can wr ite 'fic tio ns .' So tha t's pro ba bly wh y I go t int ere ste d in prose, wr iting a~out thi ng s oth er tha n se lf, yo u kn ow (even tho ug h yo u'r e • alw ay s wr itin g ab ou t se lf an yw ay s.) 26 ' Andy is a series of fiv e - ' un rel ate d stories, each on e int err up tin g the oth er in no ap pa ren t sequence. The ex ce rpt inc lud ed here picks up on the Yabo' o ex plo rat ion sto ry on Au gu st 28 th, 1944. In the inv es tig ati on of the Himalayas, the dia ris t's fev er is wo rse nin g, jus t as are the dif fic ult ies of the characters in the oth er stories. A science I . fic tio n sto ry becomes the mo uth pie ce for the ori es ab ou t wr iting : 'm ea nin g least concern in place of actual wo rki ng of the mi nd .' In thi s pa rtic ula r se gm en t, the re are on ly thr ee of the stories: the int erc ha ng ing ex plo rer and science fic tio n episodes, and the fin al let ter fro m An dy .' By the way,' says Andy, • 'th at' s a gre at po em yo u sent.' An d lat er: 'Gr ea t to kn ow a fel low wh o can express him se lf in yo ur,ow n language.' In fact, it is a real let ter fro m Nic ho l's frie nd , An dy Phillips. This jux tap os \ itio n of the 're al' and the 'fic tio na l' is ch ara cte ris tic of Nic ho l's openness to po etr y an d to language, and the ble nd ing becomes mo re ev ide nt in the co lla bo rat ion poems. At the po int be twe en . 22 • one story and another, something else is happening. The transition is not jerky; rather, there is a carry-over from one to the next so that a common theme emerges. For example, after the diary entry for September 3, 1944, the SF story extends the basic premise: 'There can be no turning back but there is no where to go forward.' Then the SF story: 'details thinn{ng out. no further delineation possible in face of continued activity of culture parasites reversal attempt of original language tool function now become weapon.' The dead end has been reached, just as Andy could not communicate with a French girl because of the language barrier. There is also a personal element to this sequence, because Nichol was born just twenty days after the diarist's final entry; further, the second last SF section reads: 'twenty-four year overlap coming to resolution in final flight from pseudoforms into matter/antimatter over• lap ultimate destruction creation of total new.' Dated 19621968, we can figure out that the twenty-four year overlap coincides with Nichol's age when finishing Andy and that the creation is the birth of Nichol as well as the birth of a new form . of communication. Nichol's fascination with Billy the Kid, which appears in Two Heroes, also surfaced in The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid, a short prose piece 'about this guy who had a short dick and who went around killing people.' The piece gained notoriety when Nichol won the GovernorGeneral's Award for Poetry rn 1970, and one of the four books for which he received the prize was Billy. In light of recent censorship arguments, the comments of some members of Parliament are illuminating. Mr. Mac T. Mccutcheon (LambtonKent): ·1n view of the recent Canada Council grant based on the writing of a treatise relating to the life of Billy the Kid, can the parliamentary secretary say if this is a change of direction from subsidizing Marxism to marksmanship with short guns?' 23 Later, M r. No wl an qu er ie d wh y Bi lly sh ou ld have received a gr an t since it 'is no th in g m or e th an rude and po rn og ra ph ic. ' Finally, M cc ut ch eo n m ov ed th at th e h©use express its 'di sp le asure' wi th th e aw ar d, bu t w ith ou t un an im ou s consent, th e m ot io n could no t be made. 28 A m or e di ffi cu lt wo rk to read and • un de rs ta nd is Journal. To Ni ch ol , Journal is an at te m pt to submerge t1ie reader. The wa y I sa w it wa s th at it wa sn 't so m uc h an issue of st yle , ac hi ev in g a w rit in g st yle , as be in g ab le to transcribe, if yo u lik e, or tra ns la te , states of consciousness. An d to si m pl y have th at so th at th e re ad in g ex pe rie nc e wo ul d be th e ex pe rie nc e as m uc h as yo u can ge t it of a st at e of co nsciousness .... The st at e is ha pp en in g es se nt ia lly to , we can call hi m 'th e' character in 'Jo ur na l,' is on e in wh ic h ex te rn al re al ity • ju st ge ts su bs um ed in to in te rn al re al ity... . Fi na lly he ju st has to sh ov e al l th at as id e and in a wa y ju st go back to hi s ow n be gi nn in g, wh ic h, in th at case is hi s re la tio ns hi p to hi s m ot he r. An d it's al m os t lik e he starts ov er at th at po in t. He says, okay, here's ev er yt hi ng I re m em be r of wh at ha pp en ed . You know, li~erally, he fin ds a gr am m ar fo r m em or y in a sense. An d th en he can proceed fro m there. 29 The last pa rt of As Elected includes some we ird poems, some tra ns la tio ns , and some co lla bo ra • tio ns . To begin, is Naming 3 a poem? Well, it is composed of symbols fre qu en tly used in po et ry . It does ap pe ar on th e page lo ok in g lik e a po em , and it does have bo th a tit le and a da te of co m po sit io n. An d it does in vo lve reader pa rti cip at io n to create a wo rd wh ich emphasizes th e do m in an t idea. Is it possible to de te rm in e th e square ro ot of lo gi c? W ha t is th e nearest wh ol e le tte r? W he n yo u tra ns fe r on e sy m bo lo gy to another, i.e., m at he m at ics to la ng ua ge , yo u make ne w discoveries. In proba- ble systems 9 Ni ch ol simulates m at he m at ics , and th en of fe rs a \.. 24 • Wr itin g wit h Steve Mc caf fer y as the Tor ont o Research Gro up, Nic hol proposes tha t the trad itio nal ide a of tran sla tion inv olv es a shi ft in not ation in ·ord er to pre sen t a ,co mm on me ani ng to a wid er aud ience .... [ho we ver ] com par iso n of diff ere nt lan gua ges ind ica tes tha t the re are few if any syn ony mo us term s .... lap ps have no gen eric term for sno w but several wo rds for several typ es of sno w.... wh at is c~ear is tha t we inh erit a ling uis tic fram ew ork which to a large extent determines the type ~f reality we per, • ceive. 30 If we no lon ger con sid er tran sla tion as bei ng necessarily an info rma tion al ser vice - the one ton gue 's access into oth er ton gue s - the n it can bec om e a cre ativ e end eav or in its ow n righ t. 31 In Nic hol 's tran sla tion 'Ca tull us poerri XX Vlll ' some ~ of the Lat in wo rds are rendered in the ir orig ina l me ani ng, ~ des pite the ir alte rati on in sou nd: e.g., cum I wit h, qui I wh o, • diu I godly. But mo st of the English wo rds are plays on the Lat in sounds: states Nic hol , 'I'v e alw ays been led ·by the ear in my w r it i n g.' 32 \ 25 • ' A poet speaks through many voices. From a dream, Nichol recovered a poem by bill bissett .- a poem written in the style of bill bissett, but through Nichol's perceptions and dream 'C. state. Compare this poem to George Bowering's poem on bill . bissett (in Curious), and compare it to a poem by bissett himself . • The princi pie underlying 'found poetry' is that all language can be transformed into poetry, provided you alter the original context. Look around you right now; at random, begin to read from something - a fire warning poster, a fragment from a newspaper, an ad on a chocolate bar wrapper. Read it as if you were a high school English teacher quoting from her favourite • • poetry anthology, and you will have uncovered a poem. If the . found poem links the originator with the tinder, what happens when two people knowingly collaborate? Unless we are • allowed to view the collaborative process, ~nd c;Jistinguish who , did what and how it all came about, the answer is foggy. What is clear is that the collaboration between Nichol and Wayne Clifford resulted in a different style than Nichol's collaboration with Steve Mccaffery. • The connection between Nichol's job and hi~ collaborations is worth exploring. He works at Theratields as a theradramist ... seeing people and talking with ~hem about what's bothering them. And what you're doing in the situation is not imposing yourself on the person but basic- - ally being a catalyst: to ask questions they can't formulate, to put them in ·t he situation where they're going to have to deal with the material themselves and where you can help them as much as you can. 33 In a c:ollaboration between. two writers, one may act as the catalyst, or both may act as catalysts, in which • case the poem becomes the end product and the individual \ 26 personal differences are forg otte n. Possibly best kno wn of Nichol's colla bora tion s is with the sou nd poe try grou p, The Four Horsemen. The Hor sem en was Rafael Barr etto -Riv era' s idea. Steve Mcc affe ry and I had a read ing at the St. Lawrence Cen tre (som e bom b!) ... whe re only 20 peo ple sho wed up in this hug e hall . So Rafael was ther e and real ly enjo yed us so we got toge ther with Paul Dut ton and we all jam med . I was very inte rest ed in gett ing into that because I was very bored with • the limi tatio n of one voic e. Wha t four voic es allo wed us was mor e cho ral, mor e thea trica l pos sibi litie s - in sho rt ope ns up the who le ball game. As a writ er this was a trem end ous ly exc iting cha llen ge to me. In fact, The Hor sem en as a perf orm ance grou p have been very successful in wha t we wer e tryin g to do: reac hing peo ple. We' ve had diffi cult y ours elve s pers onally, in kno win g wha t we wan t to do whe n we finis h a reading. There's been a trem end ous inpu t into the audience, the aud ience has usu ally been very responsive, we get a lot of feedb~ck just in term s of atte ntiv e liste ning and app laus e ... and then , ther e we are, we'r e no long er a grou p and we'r e just indi vidu als and it's ofte n a very disl oca ting time . 34 Whe n the grou p started, the first thin g we had to ove rcom e w~s that eve rybo dy • kne w my nam e and nob ody kne w the rest of the grou p's • names. Okay, so wha t you have is 'bpN icho l and The Four Hor sem en!' It sou nds like I got this bac k-up grou p of Mot own singers sna ppin g thei r fing ers .... This was a very ha~d process. People don 't wan t to thin k of writ ers as grou ps. The y're fixe d on writ ers as the sing le consciousness. 35 The Four Horsemen evo lved a nota tion al system sim ply to let ours elve s kno w at whi ch poin t we follo w diffe rent courses, whi le at the same 27 • • • time leaving wide variatio n in terms of what each voice does do in his section with, of course, an ear, to what each other voice is doing.... in the past month we've begun to leave this notatio nal system behind since the notatio nal system (like any languag e) limits your thinkin g for a more spheroi d (i.e. nonlinear) means of notatin g.... thru sound the chance exists to heal the split that has become more & more appare nt since the inventio n of the printing press it is the only thing that makes sense. 36 In ·' Particular Music', the grid contain s room for each of the Horsemen to be on his own as well as to act in concert with the others. A more 'sphero id' approac h exists in 'Sorrow Laid As Th is One'; no clear stops are indicate d, nor can the end result be predicte d - each perform ance is unique, depend ing on the particip ants, the time, the audienc e, and so on. Finally, ' Maps describes Nichol's attitude s toward s 'system .' and 'tech- nique'; it is a zen-like stateme nt about time ('the momen t does not come I the momen t is') and about the 'need to throw away the scaffold ing once the tower has been built. 4 ' . Five years ago, I began the last paragra ph of an essay entitled 'Writin g Writing : bpNich ol at 30' this way: 'If it is not blas·phemy to categor ize Nichol' and he wrote me back: 'having not · achieve d Godhea d yet it looks like your soul's safe.' To categorize Nichol, as this book attemp ts to do, is to portray his writing ' from one very limiting view.po int. So let me conclud e by quot• ing from the work of anothe r critic, Frank Davey: bpNich ol's writing is the most courageous body of work in Canadian literature today ... It risks, even invites, condem nation by the conservative critic for triviality , banality, obscurity, wordiness, formless28 ness, p~ivateness - all those 'vices' teared by the reasonable man because they so ~nform the human environment. To Nichol, how- ever, those 'vices' a~e p~ecisely what most need to be exorc;sed ever, those 'vices ' are priecisely what most need to be exoficised by their transtormat1on into linguistic sign, so that the saints, rhymes, and secret rhymes of the language can move the poet to 'g~eater vision: 'other mysteries,' and a ~econciliation with Her:ac- litean p~ocess - a willingn ess to 'allow what is to be : 37 Jack David Toronto, Ontario Spring, 1980 A Brief Note on the Flux The astute reader will note in reading the introduction many shifts in punctuation, spelling, etc. while reading through the quotations. The author and his editor chose to leave these intact to suggest some of the paths his particular researches have taken him down . Heraclitus, there a clitus, everywhere the flux'll flight us. 29 Footnotes pN1ct1ol, Ou Po I Av r1t-Post s, d C rol1n Bayard and Jack D v 1d ( r Po rc p 1 , 19 7 8), p. 2 8 2 pN 1c of Cont mpor ry Po ts of tl1 En l1sh Langu ge, ed Rosalie Mur pt (Lon o S m s, 70), p. 798 ont n1por ry Po , 7 7 ont mpor ry Po , p 7 8 5 Out Po , 7 ,p Ou 7 Po ry orld V1 , d M ry Ellen Sot 1 n U ss_ 1 70), pp 7 - 72. Th 1s 1s he best 1 11 I 1n oduct1or o h udy of cone t po try. 1ct1ol, 'In p 1c o Fe , 78,' by Ken Norris, on C n d1 11 o 2 (F 11 78), pp 2 7- 8 uPio ,p p v1 r1 r Po ms, b F1nchf Open Letter, 1ct1ol, Coner (Bloo , n o In 8 0 s , o ( I 1c 101 Ho 7 , 78- 7 , d ot n ob Do I lov Th 70). p 0 Colombo {Edmon- 8 ( 5 o Tl1 Jin 7) p 1chol. In s ' ~ r 1 7 ), p 5 Cou D 1 111 nd OtJ1r T:r1ps, b ptl no Re I 1c ol G r 1 1I b sse , 8 9 (F 111975 & s n rv1 db GI d s H ndmarch, , Br 1 F1sh r, nd D phne Mar Iatt. , OS Out Po , 7 b 1c ol, ·L 7 p5 Out Po Out o Out Po Out 2 Out o b p 0 , , p , p , . 0 h Ann Sherm n 30 24. Out-Rosts, p. 39. 25 . Out-Posts, p. 24-25 . 26. The Capilano Review, p. 316. 27 . The Varsity, p. 10. 28 . Hansard, 10June1971 , pp.6554,6557 ; 29June1971, p. 7458. You can read The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid in John Newlove, ed., Canadian Poetry: The Modern Era (Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 1977). 29. The Capilano Review, pp. 318-19 . 30. 'TRG Report 1: Translation ,' Open Letter, Ser. 2, No . 4(Spring1973), 79 . 31 . 'TRG Report 1: Translation ,' 83 . 32 . 0ut-posts, p. 30 . 33 . The Capilano Review, p. 326. 34 . The Varsity, p. 11 . 35 . The Capilano Review, p. 327 . 36. bpNichol, 'From Sound to Sense,' Stereo Headphones, No. 4 (Spring 1971), n. pag . 37. Frank Davey, 'bpNichol,' in From There to Here (Erin : Porcepic, 1974), pp . 213-14 . For a thorough list of Nichol's writings, see his 'published autotopography, ' Essays on Canadian Writing, No. 1 (Winter 1974), pp. 39-46. For other critical reaction to Nichol, see Out-Posts, pp . 48-49 . 31 H (an alphhabet) I from 26 Alph abe ts 34 from 'ABC: the aleph beth boo k' • I I • I 35 r , • I Blues I • • ' • I \ ( \ • 36 worra arrow a wgrr w arro w r r a arro w wo r r a ar r o w w o r r a a r r o w w o r r a a a r r r r oow w w o r r a w o r ra o w a r r w o rra o w r a r a a r r r r o o w wwwgrra rr wor o r a r a a r r r r gwor wor a worra w orra w o rra w o r ra arrow a rrow a r row a r r ow a r r o w w o r r a a r r o w w o r r a a r r o w w o r r a r o w a r wo r r a a r r o ww wor r a worr a a r r o w o r r a ra wof w o r r a rr , ar 8orrarr r o ow w w rrowor r orrarro arrowo rr orrarro w rt8~8t:~ 8 t~f~O OW W ar a w 0 r oworr 0 rar r a r r r r o ow w worr o ra o o w worra worra a r r a r r 0 w o w w orra worr a a r r a r 0 w r a r w o rra wor r a o w r a r r o w a r w o r ra wo r r a a r r o w r r o w a w o r r a w o r r a a r r o w a. rrow a o r r ra w w o r r a a r r o w a r r ow w o r wo r r a ar r o w a r row w o rra wor r a arr o w a rrow w orra worr a arro w arrow worra vorra arrow a r r 37 gg g g g g g g g 0 g 0 g g og og gg go o go o g 0 0 0 g 0 g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g gg go go 88 go· 8 go 8 • g g Sg 8 8 8 8 0 e o a • The Complete Works ± @# $ %¢ & * ( ) + 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - = Q WE R T Y U I 0 P ~ q w e r t y u i o p ~ • A s D F G H J K L : II asdfghjkl; • Z ·X C V B N M , . ? z x c v b n m , . I *any possible permutaion of all listed elements • • / 39 • Al legory No. 6 I • AS TJ.IE)' sr~PLY SXI'-\ • \ • • , 40 Aleph Unit , I • 41 I ' I ' .. • • - I 0 • , \ • • • - t 42 - • • 43 • I ' I ' • ' • • • • • .. 44 • , • 45 • \ • • • ' J 46 7 • 0• ' 1972 48 N O T W H A T THE SIREN SANG BUT W H A T THE FRAG M E N T to r ma rg ar et avison le af fl ea • • autumn sky umantu kys over an over um tu mu ut fa le munaut syk fa il monotony sik h ton tongue fl ai l man tongue r~anatou anatou fr ai l an at ol e si ck man to ll menta 1 ta 11 men te ll men Telemann sa il kick el ep ha nt ba il fl ic k medicant ahmen ca nt er amen ca nt or · al l men ca n' t or ta ll men can te ll men Telemann tli ck wail element tr ic k wall al l it meant tic k in tim at e ba ll pick in tim at e Bach cl ic k imminent back cl ac k emanate • 50 Braque break clock i mmi ta te cake immolate brick kick integrate crib crab kite i nsu 1ate sight irritate wait ....... • 51 I D a d a Lama ' to the m em or y of H ug o Ball 1 h w ee ee e h w ee ee e • hyonnnn hyonnnn h w ee ee e h w ee ee e hyonnnn hyonnnn • I tu b a d id id d o tu b a d id id d o hyon hyon • ' \ tubadididdo tu b a d id id d o hyon hyon I ff ff f ff ff ff ff ff ff fff f ftsssssssss ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ffj tss ssss SSS f ff ff ffff ffffff fff ff ffl itsssssssss ' hyonnnnnn unh hyonnnnnn unh 52 \ • • 2 eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 3 oudoo doan doanna tinna limn limn la leen untloo lima limna doo doo . • , dee du deena deena dee du deena deena dee du deena ah-ooo runtroo lintle leave lipf lat Ii na tanta tlalum cheena ran tron tra troo ) 53 • ' deena dee du deena deena dee du deena deena dee du • da dee di do du deena deena • I 4 ' • AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA • aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA • • • 54 • • • 5 ti ic tloc • tlic tloc tlic tloc t tlic tloc tlic tloc ti ic tloc ti ic tloc ti ic tloc tlic tloc tlic tloc tlic tloc tlic tloc tlic tloc tlic tloc tlic tloc ' tlic tloc tlic tloc tlic tloc ti ic tloc ti i c tloc ti i c tloc ti ic tloc tlic tloc ti ic tloc tlic tloc tlic tloc tlic tloc tlic tloc tlic tloc tlic tloc tlic tloc tlic tloc tlic tloc \ ti ic tloc tlic tloc • • • ti i c tloc 55 • 6 • wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm • wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww OUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM OUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 'FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH • • FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE DUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM ' FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE DUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM 19 65 -6 6 • 56 Lament ford. a. levy who took his own life 1968 -69 • ' 57 • from 'Trans-Continental' I 1 an h moves past an m an i becomes an r someone throws a snowbal I • p 0 t r s u v v v w • I • I • I • I 2 x d one mile a sky which is grey blue do not serve yourself I e 4 3 1 2 2 • 58 3 z zero then nothing 3 6 9 10 13 5 here a z becomes an e becomes an m a w 4 a d in a cloudbank an r by a sea perhaps it is a river passes over sky sun a town in which the r becomes an I 59 after hokusai • • the old man holds the sea on a string. how can he bring it in & keep from drowning? 60 Cold Mountain GO from her side TO reach you must i COLD & high MOUNTAIN 61 RETURN home • • 1n pain FROM trails that i've travel led COLD to her arms • MOUNTAIN • • I ... 62 s s co ds ~o oun s so ominous 0 hor1 on 63 4 poems from 'Still Water' 2 leaves touch bad poems are written I 64 blob PIOP 65 moon • owl I tree tree tree shadowy • • • • 67 the other side of the room .. • lovers the skin is a way of touching hello always the glass between you & what goes past • • • • • 68 1335 COMOX AVENUE in fal I we lose ourselves 1n new rooms, gaze from windows grown old in that season • we choose new beds to love in, cover our bodies in confusions of all that should be left behind bury our faces in each other tasting flesh in mouth gathering warmth possessing each other as a way of loving \ we are too near the sea we hear the gulls cry cars pass the horns of ships and cry to see the moss grown ' 69 , thro w wind ows open to nigh t to kneel to pray hands on each othe r pressing body into body some sort of liturg y • • hear the sea the bel Is the sound of people passing voic esdr ifting up , and cold wind s come to chill our naked hearts love is some sort of fire come to warm us fill our bodies all in these moti ons flow ing into each othe r in despair tHe room one narr ow worl d that migh t be anyw here • 1963 I I • from Journ eying & the return s • 70 • chapter 7 c.p. won · ' • the marathon dance award. scored a dozen of them · without even thinking. sinking feeling in his heart he knows they'll never be a part of any poem he wrote. nope. you're sunk cap. your loveboat gone . kerplunk upon the ropes. balless in gaza ya can't dazzle 'em with the old one-two. the fox-trot, the cha-cha, get nowhere. quit hangin' round there' fred astaire finally gave it up took ginger home & fucked the whole night long. leaving the showbiz behind the daily grind's obliterated & love's boat floats upon a sea of obvious necessity. the need to love reiterates the true state of affairs. you leave your slippers on gaza's golden stairs & go home to her reality. the actuality of women burns the eyes & the bad scenes the poor cuts blur into insignificance beside the magnificence of real dance. don't take a chance on getting lost in 'B' parts~ ' .. (rem emb er the min nie -mo o-h a star t of the satu rda y afte rno on rna tine e gro pe? rex allen rea chin g for his rope & you , ridic ulou sly, pull ing you r own ? mo ani ng you r way thru the pop cor n into the fea ture sho w kno win g rex cou ldn 't dance unless they slipped a gu1 n into the scene .) lean ing into the late mov ie 1 m idn igh t t v screen i twir l my rope aga inst the hop e of free ing you s fred was freed & dances now in finia n 's rain bow whi le you spend you r tim e fee lin' low. don 't you kno w you r bod y enhances the thin gs you try to say? don 't let you r b1 rain slip awa y into pre sum ptuo usn es . (rex had so muc h less tha n he sho uld' ve had . & th,e thin gs we did to him ma de us feel bad . 1 1 i rem emb er as a kid i wro te to him & sa1 id 'De ar Rex : All my frie nds say you ' re mean & stuck-up but I thin k you 're the gre ates t cow boy aliv e . Please wri te & sho w the m the y're wro ng . Your frie nd Barr ie Nic hol (age 10) ' 72 & i pasted the letter he sent · next to a photo of ginger rogers in a sarong 'Dear Barrie; So glad to get your letter. Here's an autographed picture of me. Please tell your friends I'm not really mean and stuck-up. Your cow by pal Rex Allen' goq i felt guilty at his sincerity~) can't you see the way you waste your days glancing over your shoulder waiting for the bolder chicks to grasp your dick & say 'hey~ , wanna play fred astaire & ginger?' • sincerely hoping for some satori bp (age 24) 1968-69 from The New New Captain Poetry Blues: an undecided novel I • • 73 fr o m 'The P lu n ke tt Papers' w e ro de th e tr ai n ba ck w es t in 54 my da1d sister & me ou ts id e o f red ro ck ha d to st op 12 ho ur s coz o f a slide ran ov er 2 workers ju st af te r ge tt in g un de r way ag ai n i re m em be r se ei ng th em fr om th e tr ai n th e bl oo d & th e se ve re d arms & af te r w e he ar d th e on e m an di ed he ad in g ou t to pl un ke tt fr om po rt rt hu r th e su m m er be fo re i tu rn ed te n m ee tin g uncle bi 11 in sa sk at oo n dr ov e do w n to my un cl e m ik e' s fa rm ru nn in g ov er th is pr ai rie ch ic ke n on th e way ou r faces tu rn ed w hi te th in g flo pp in g crazily i1 n th e dust & la te r my sister & me w al ke d do w n th e ro ad fr om hu n & m ik e' s fa rm ju st th e tw o of us de at h all ar ou nd us de te rm in ed to m ak e it on th at last m ile to pl un ke tt 69 74 two sections from 'Mono Tones' ' III . t rr c f go d -- n1 t h 1· \~·}1 o go lJ f r n1 ~ '? th r a th on ra i f 0 l l 0 \\' fl ow e:t ft r int o th e n1oo n 75 • • r I • • •r k Ii • II i l i Ii t i . 76 Coda: Mid-Initial Sequence faint edge of sleep a literal fuzzing in the mind as tho the edge of what was held clearly became less defined the penalty paid & your father recognized for what he is forW HA~ the is orange the vague light closing the eye 's Ii d home plate 77 the late P • destroyed leaving only b & ·n beginning again • bna all history there t here opposed against the suffering we have yet to bear last note not no e I as no I body I where I where • I 78 now e for w's sak1 • no 1s e against the silent sleep bushes dawn the r rises brushes drawn the whole scene thew hole into which the world disappears dis a p pear shaped dear H a p edges into the sea sun the unenviable s 79 ther e is no des ire for speech the re is no desire to spell each ges ture aga inst the chaos mus t be mad e wel l the re is stiilness in the hea rt of the pow er as the re is stillness in the hea rt of the stor m bet wee n the w & the d the in side of the min d 's a qui et place from whi ch the pow er unw inds in voc atio n 1 am • • a sing er 80 e ery I tt r invokes sp II ng IS h po r le ers ha over m add1 ion of th I w1th1n th difference I ts If who 1s mov d or moves dist1nct1on d1spar1ty .d. a.d. h 1 tory' pok n 1n th fir t four letters to z out 1d th h d' II m sur of our kind 81 \ ' (va riat ion on a line by H.D . - in mem oria m) A.D .on is dead • let the H · sup plan t the D in you r swe et poe try , ado nis head HE isth eA. D.· HE is not dead The H is gon e from you r lips H.D . sof t con son anta l bre ath ' . the vow els are lock ed bet wee n the dar k doo rs dea d wha teve r dies · the secrets do not die with you the lore we all seek (I ore ) choices are not disi nter este d 82 d is int it is the old story HE lived thru HIS death & suffering 33 years into HIS ti me 22 letters left to pass thru what birth will herald the change if the formula remains the same the era F.G. to follow A.D. E.H. is the next to bear HIS name reversed ' mother muse you come before HIS time incarnate in a name now passed away H.D. HE follows after you again ' 11 years since i first conceived myself a writer · took up the task to earn that name & now i see i (n) am e can i speak in the midst of suffering address the cross we wear too carelessly • t i'm e part of the movement out of this dark time are we all trapped in a D we do not recognize 83 i wil l nev er we ar the H nev er see HIS face it is the app ren tice 's hips i spr ing fro m her loins oh ladies i have nam ed my muses the gro in aches to serve you • it is the app ren tice shi p con tinu es sail dec ora ted wit h the single em ble m P let t err as it does in this tim e i'm str ug glin g to learn my ab c d of ou r/H IS sto ry • • 'do gm a i am go d' it is all tha t's said wo ke this mo rni ng these wo rds in my head a pa lind rom e link ed wit h an ima ge of frie nds ' tw o poe ts i kne w disagreed we re no t spe aki ng wit h each oth er • 84 • 0 I r • n I rv h o G • 'dogma i am god' heresy hearsay in the worst sense false pride • who thinks to bestride the world because he feels crushed by it • 1971-1973 I from The Martyrology: Book Ill ' • I I • 86 Scraptures: seventh sequence 1 gre en yel low do g up. i hav e not . I am . gre en red cat do wn . I is no t. I is. ove r und er und er ups ide up is. l's is no t • is i's . . iffen ever never you d deside size seize says the odore (green yel low glu m) I'd ma rry you. tru th heart hard confusions confess all never ne ithe r tith e or wh eth er wit h her lovers lever leaving her alone . no n0. chest paws and chin . no. I • 2 • insect. incest. c'est in. infa nt. in fonts. onts. onts. ptonts. pontoons. la Iune. la lun. · la lun en juin est? c' est la lune fro m vot re fenetre. vos. vous. vouloir. I wish. I wish. I may. I mig ht. jun e nig ht · and the lovers loafers, low firs, · o Id f rrrs, la love rs, la Irrrs. • • 87 3 liturg ical turge d i rge dinta krak kree fint ab lat li n sant dank a scho en fane sa paws claw s le foret . my love coo lamn a ma1 ndreen sont valle jo . 1 oh valleys and hills lie op n ingk ra sintle list la list ciste rn turn ing dow n . • • Jene _ _ 1s pas mad am . je ne sais pas mad emo is elle . je ne sais pas 1 l'am our mirr oring mes yeux meil leur my urgin g for you . 4 an infin ite state men t . a finite st,a teme nt . a state men t of infan cy. a fine line state line . a finge r of stale mate . a feeli ng a saint mea nt ointm ent . trem ble . a regio n relig ion reign s in . a retur ning . turn ing retur n the lover s. the retro spec t of relat ionsh ips always retur ning . the burn ing of the urge . the surge forw ard in anim al bein g insid e us . the catat osis van del reeb a rebus subu rbs of our imag inati on . last chur ch ot the lurch in g word work ed wier d in our heads . 5 grea t smal l lovers move hom e. red th e chur ch ca1 ught up 1 relishes dog. lover s sain thoo d loses over sur. oh i grow ing hopeless lies in ruin . u in i hope beet root . 88 6 halo. hello. i cover red my sentim ent. blanke ts return the runnin g ships back. clock. tock tock tick tock. so he loves her. the red dog green home. geth pants return a meiste r shaft. statem ents each one and any you rather the could'v e repent - alright ? ii n'est pas sont ecole la plume plum or apples in imagin ingje ne desirez pause. je ne sais • • • pas. Je ne sa1s. Je pas .. 7 ii y a la lever la lune. I' amour est le ridicule of a life sont partir dans moors. le velscht ang est huos le jardin d'amou r, un chanso n popula ire in the revolut ion. · mon amour est un cherie, a cherry, a cheery rose with shy petals to sly on. saint reat will teach me songs to woo her. 8 • au revoir. le reveille sounds up the coach. les pieds de le cheval ier voleu r sont ma mere en la nuance de ma votoveto. oh maman . oh papan pa pan pa pa pan pa pan pan. le choux deriver la nom du chien from dog. le chat cat is back who has forgott en his name. 1967 89 from 'Andy' August 27, 1944 The smell is overpowe ring! • August 28, 1944 A huge mountain was seen off in the distance just as night fell. May be the one Yaboo 's grandfath er mentione d. Camped for night on this island. Have feeling I have gone this way before wh ic h is of course impossilb le. Deja vu! Fever is getting worse. Yaboo has found some herbs and hopes to mix medicine to get me through this period. ''Cynthia too in assumpti on of false name misrepre sents case of lost Joan now gone from this construc t and vanished. presence of artificial shaping influence form of subseque nt and previous novels. the implosion has happene d already within laboured breathing orgasm creation of this ship 's motions thru heavy breathing of anti-matt er universe. this trip to be measured in terms of my own identity yaboo yemen now lost thru complex of plastic alteration of matter universe and juxtaposi tion of unrealitie s. August 29, 1944 A boat ran aground on the island just before sunrise. Bakil Sithe lay in the bottom - dead. eyes turned inwards. face contorted . ''Delinea tion now virtually impossib le. meaning least concern in pl,a ce of actual working of the mind. purpose to present the history of certain pos· sible heads at this space in time as placed from meaningf ul communi cation from earth." August 30, 1944 Mountain directly in front of us. It can be no more than 30 miles ,a way. There is no safe place to camp. "opennes s a hoped for end of meaning as ultimate abc concern -Of vegetable world. door to the sea passed thru and growing. vital organism to exist separate from artificial molding of speech thot continuum.'' August 31, 1944 We have narrowly missed death. Fortunate ly our boat became stuck on a rock before following the falls over the edge. The water appears to disappea r into the mountain a few miles down from the waterfall. We shall go on foot the rest of the way and pray for survival. 90 ''motion to be noted as non-essential. quote from source determines orgasm in the female as contractions of pelvic and perineal muscles felt by penis at point of deepest penetration at end of act. misconstructs of penis as food to be fed on as object of eating noted and determined detail in pseudoform recreation of primal source for this body now occupying new space and time. question of understanding increasing. realized distortion to occupy continual link with own body thru body switch with form now feeding as it were food as it were moving in and out of tight mirror universe of own limitation." September 2, 1944 We have donned our parkas because of the extreme cold. The journey down from the top of the waterfall was extremely dangerous and it took the best part of a day to do it. Vascil slipped at one point and nearly crashed to the rocks below. Fortunately he caught up short on a branch. The temperature at the bottom of the waterfall was only slightly above freezing. We spent last night huddled together in blankets and parkas under the shelter of an overhanging rock. This morning hoar frost hung from every tree. We put on the snowshoes we'd bought and set out through the woods. No sign of life anywhere. About lunch time we discovered huge red blotches in the snow. A few miles further on we came across the severed end of a huge vine. It lay along the banks of the river and curled away into the distance. We have misjudged the distance to the mountain. We have gone about 20 miles already and have at least another 30 or 40 miles ahead of us. Vascil appears to be suffering from snow blindness. The temperature has dropped to below zero. The river 1s completely frozen over. ''details thinning out. obvious exhibition of continued writings of previous journeys thru similar space by the once famous colonel bob de cat now occupying body name rory and one joan batey now occupying body name cynthia. similar occupations of double and triple name space visible as constant in theoretical real earth world. earth now left behind as formal construct of opposition to anti-matter matter link-up.'' September 3, 1944 We have reached the mountain. Cliffs rise straight up in front of us. The water forms a pool here and the river appears to end. We are sure it must go underground and through the mountain but we are too tired to do anything but rest today. The temperature must be twenty below now. We will camp in a small cave we have found. Supplies are down to about four months worth and we are on strict rations. There can be no turning back but there is no where to go forward. ''details thinning out. no further delineation possible in face of continued activity of culture parasites reversal attempt of original language tool function now become weapon.'' • 91 September 4, 1944 We have investigated this whole stretch of cliffs and can find no way to get out of the valley we are in. Climbing back up the waterfall is out of the questi-on. Where can we go? Vascil 's sight is completely gone. • ''no further delineation possible ear folding over to avoid sound overlay revealing tonal shift actual message of pseudoform abc logic. twentyfour year overlap coming to resolution out of history of this head circa twentieth year to heaven flight from this earth and body to be reconstructed of whole manner total orgasm concern for central nervous system completing now in search for spheroid mode. " September 7, 1944 We have broken a hole in the ice and are going to attempt swimming down and finding where the river drains to. We have wrapped all our supplies in canvas and rubber in order to keep them dry, using the tarpaulins for this purpose. I doubt if we will ever get out of this alive. '' twenty-four year overlap coming to resolution in final flight from pseudoforms into matter I antimatter overlap ultimate destruction creation of total new. " September 10, 1944 There is no end to the light. The warmth is overwhelming. A strange fur-like fungii covers the walls and floor. Everything we touch is covered in it. It spreads quickly and is already covering our clothing faces and cookingware. '' no further delineation possible. closing now. this is your captain speaking. closing now. Received your letter & poem today. I think I will write Woolston telling him I won 't make it to Winnipeg. There are many things I want to talk about with you. I must however make it home Friday the 12th or Saturday at the latest - so I will stay at least until Tuesday or early Wednesday (depending on the train schedules). I don 't know exactly now what I want to say but it's always this way. I know I will have many questions. Things though are the same as ever at the Alliance. I want to ask this girl out but she is surrounded by people all the time & she speaks little english. I lose my courage every time ·1 see her. I was particularly pissed off today because I lost my last chance. It seems that one runs into the same conflicts & inhibitions no matter where he goes. Also my cold is still bad so perhaps this had something to do with it. You know Bar I'm a very funny character. I'm living in fantasies all the time. I've fucked about 10 -18 girls in my fantasies & not one in reality. Oh well. A ha! more advice from Andy. I don't feel you should have shocked the hungry pack back home by telling them all. It was too much to take. Although it was necessary to tell them something. I know how they felt back there. It all seems so very mysterious. None of them have seen Toronto or your scene so their imagination takes them away from the reality of your situation. Perhaps your dissertation was a little too vivid. By the way that 's a great poem you sent. • 92 Well back again . A bit more ra· ional now . Wen t to talk with my Ame rican frien d in the Pens ion. Grea t to know a fella who can expre ss hims elf in your own langu age. But v.Jill send a letter to Woo lston . Don 't really ca.re now if I see Jill. I rote her 3 le ters & no respo nse. Kind of rotte n of her I must say. Wou ld like to see the Woo lston famil y again but may ge back there this summ ,er. I may take a vaca tion then after I ·f inish work in Augu st. Wou ld like to see the city in summ er. I send this with the love of our frien dship . Andy 93 • Gorg, a detective story • for a.a.fair posthumously a man walks into a room. there is a corpse on the floor. the man has been shot through the temple the bullet entering at a 45 ° angle above the eyes & exiting almost thru the top of the skull. the man does not walk out of the room. the corpse stands up & introduces himself. later there will be a party. you will not be invited & feeling hurt go off into a corner to sulk. there is a gun on the window sill. you rig up a pulley which enables you to pull the trigger while pointing the gun between your eyes & holding it with your feet. a man walks in on you. you are lying on the floor dead. you have been shot thru the temple the bullet exiting almost thru the top of your skull. you stand up & introduce yourself. the man lies on the floor & you shoot him between the eyes the bullet piercing his temple & exiting thru his skull into the floor. you rejoin the party. the man asks you to leave since you weren't invited. you notice a stranger in the doorway who pulling out a gun shoots you between the eyes. you introduce each other & lie down. your host is polite but firm & asks you both to leave. at this point a man walks in & introduces himself. you are lying on the floor & cannot see him. your host appears not to know him & the man leaves. the party ends & the room is empty. the man picks up the corpse & exits. I • • 94 • Two Heroes 1 In the back garde n two men sit. They are talkin g with one anoth er very slowl y. Arou nd them thing s are growi ng they are not consciou s of. They are only consc ious of each other in a dim way, enoug h to say that this is the perso n they are talkin g to. Much of it appea rs a mono logue to us as we appro ach them over the wide lawn, thru the bowe r of trees, sit down betwe en them on the damp grass & prepa re to listen . There is nothi ng left to listen to. They have cease d speak ing just as we appea red. They have finall y reach ed an end to their conve rsatio n. 2 Once a long time ago they talked more easily . Once a long time ago the whole thing flowe d. They were young men then. They had gone west at fiftee n to fight in the metis uprisi ng, urged on by accou nts they read in the paper s, & they would talk then as if they were consc ious of future greatn ess, made copie s of the letter s they maile d home , prepa red a diary , talked , endle ssly & fluen tly, talke d to whoe ver'd listen , of what they' d done, what they plann ed to do, but i did not know them then, never heard , them , can only write of what i learn ed secon d hand. I 3 . When the fight was over & Riel was dead & Dum ont had fled into the states , they went home again & becam e bored . They would sit up night s talkin g abou t how grand it had been when they were fighti ng the half breed s & rerea d their diarie s & dream ed of somehow being great again . When the Boer War began they went to Afric a to fight there & oh it was great & yes they kept their journ als up to date & made more copie s of letter s that they maile d home , tying up their journals & letter s as they were done, tying them up in blue ribbo ns they had broug ht along expre ssly for that purpo se, placin g them · inside water proof tin boxes , lockin g the locks & hidin g the keys. They were very happy then. If you had asked them they w~uld not have said it was the killin g but rathe r the war for, as they were fond of sayin g, it was thru war a man disco vered himse lf, adven turing , doing heroi c thing s as every thing they'd read had 95 a]\\'a}' taugh t them . Their friend ta) ed horn f ur \ rkin in the tore helpi ng the itie to grO\\ large r lr in t m ~ 1t1 p 1c f r k i 11 i 11 i 11 n t t1 u t1 t. co tint r _ eem ma 11 er 111 r f t 11 11 i 11 fr i f t 11 ni n d l he th 0 ugh t f t 11 t \\ b 11 not mu h diff r nt t tl1 n1 r n1 \ h 11 ct1 ... , t r 11 i n1 p I , t h t I f ri ca t h e \\'e t b i ng 1 1 1 '" ' 'LA • 4 1t1 r1 • 111 RI Time pa ed. o ne h ard n1u l1 fr 111 RK , H . I. I t 0 r . ' t it l d B11..I. )' Tl~ 0 n e d a a pp a r ~d all tl1eir i11 tl1e t r / r 1r1i11 MA & it · ~n1ed tl1 re\\' r tl1i11 friend o f bot h o f t h en1 e,,e11 t h i l \ ' n l i 11 , t t1 ' 11 r d it & ta I k ed ab o u t i t a i f t h t \ ' 111 n 11 d \\' r i t t n i t }1 t t i 11 \ r ft r·n 11 ~ u11 cigar '" & brand ' O\'er tea ' ak ,e a th I t 11 i 11 I k d 11 t }1 f t h i r h n1 t ream ed t }1 r u t he \\' i n d \\ 1d t t1 i t , t t1 do \V n to V-' a rd t he h,a r b ti r , v r t l1 l1 t a rt r i ll t d tr i 11 age o f Yo r k \' i J1~ & t }1 e a r1 n e t 11 e t a r1 d in f t t1 n1 e l t1 t \ , t here, & '''on de r d aloud i f t l1 ' d e' 'er 11 u i f t hey \Vo u Id e\ er re ei \' e a ga i 11 t ho let t r t h / ~ d i r '' Id u \\' t i 11 a er ft 1n t1 t d e t 11 g i I c d o at h t t a Ie 1. n th t 11 tl1 111 f they were dead bt1t ther1 no 011e t1ad the)' ~' ere not \ er1 real to t hen1. 1 I 1 1 1 5 n. There are ome a Bill the Kid n \1 t:r di d tt1 t r b rn n l r t t ugh l di There are ome ay he \\'a t fright ened or too durnb too 111art t la)' hi lif d \ 1 n r u h t i n t t1 t ti u eI e d ream o f ''an it o f t r11 p r a r fan 1 r. 1arr t \V uld n \' rd he & Garre t \~' ere friend after all illi m "' . I uch cruel deed to an ne a \\'e t a )' u11 i t Ii . 11 n1 t don ' t k n o \'l . I read \\' 11 at I read . · 1 t t ho e 1i a r a)' Bi 11 )' l h e i d di d . qu " ' l1 I i k }1 er a r t 11 th ,o ugh . There are tho e \\' h o l i k e t t1 e t1 r o t o r t u r n ,, 11 i t1 i pimp l)1-fa ed n1oro n \\1 t10 ne r lear11 d lik 111 l 11 n e \'er a r \\\' J1 r t 11 ,,, r J h o o t o u r n1 o ut }1 o ff \\' i t h ea / i 11 i l , i n 11 i d l r t 11 i o o t r e ' \\'ho e k t1 l l t he)' pl i t " u 11 ' ' r }1 i Bi l 1 in g o u r t o n g u e n1 o \1 e & o LI r Ji p flap like that. qu I 1 u mi ht I rr1 11 lhir1 . hen )' OU read l1 ' t l1 ki d \\ 11 t 11 rt t1 L h o \\ Pat G a r re t fa k ed Bi 11 )' d r11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Canada or south to Mexico or sailed off to Europe as part of a wild west show, but there' s no sequel you'll read again that ' ll tell you the strange tale of Billy the Kid & the clockwork man. 6 Billy was in love with machines. He loved the smooth click of the hammers when he thumbed his gun, when he oiled & polished it so it pulled just right. He loved to read the fancy catalogues, study the passing trains, & when he met the clockwork man well there was nothing strange about the fact they fell in love at first sight. It was a strange time in Billy's life. He was thinking a lot about his death & other things. He had this feeling he should get away. And one day, when he was oiling the clockwork man's main spring, Billy made the clockwork man a proposition & the clockwork man said he'd definitely think about it & he did, you could hear his gears whirring all day, & that night he said to Billy sure kid i'll go to Africa with you & he did, even tho they both felt frightened, worried because they didn ' t know what'd happen. When they got to Africa it was strange. It wasn't so much the elephants or lions, the great apes or pygmies, the ant hills that were twenty feet high, it was the way their minds changed, became deranged I suppose, even more than Billy's had always been, so that they began seeing things like their future, a glimpse of how they'd die, & they didn't like it. 7 It was a good story as stories go. Most of their friends when they'd read half-way thru it would pause & wonder which one of them was Billy & which one the clockwork man & each had their own opinion about which of the two men was the bigger punk & · which the more mechanical. The women who had known them would smile & say well isn't that just like him or point a finger at some telling sentence & wink & say that's just the way he'd talk. The mothers of the two men agreed they should never have given them those mechanical banks or shiny watches & would not read much further than this. But the fathers who'd bought them their first guns were proud of them & read it all the way thru to the end even tho they didn't understand it & hoped they'd never have to read it again. 97 I • • I • 8 The prob lem with Afri ca was it was kind of dam p & ther e was no goo d place where you coul d buy repl acem ent part s. The cloc kwo rk man bega n to rust . He & the Kid sat up all nigh t talking, trying to figure som e way to save the cloc kwo rk man 's life. The re was no way. The y were too brok e to go back hom e. Besides they 'd alre ady seen that this was how the cloc kwo rk man wou ld die . The y got fatalistic. The y got cynical & mor e stran ge. The y took to killing peop le just to mak e the pain less that was ther e between them but peop le didn 't und erst and. The y tried to trac k them dow n, to kill them , & they fled, nort h thru the jungles, being shot at as they wen t, as they deserved to be, being killers they wer en't wor th redeeming. One day they ran out of bullets & that was the end. The y tried to stran gle a man but it lacked conviction & they just kept head ing nort h, feeling worse & worse, & the men & wom en purs uing them cursed a lot but gave up finally when the bodies stop ped drop ping in thei r path . The Kid & the cloc kwo rk man mad e it thru to the Sah ara with no one on thei r trac ks & lay dow n on thei r back s in the sand dun es & gazed up at the stars & fell asleep. • 9 Whe n Bill}' the Kid awo ke the cloc kwo rk man was very still. The re were ants crawling in & out of the rivet holes in his bod y & a wistful smile on his face. This look s like the end Bill he said & I can 't turn to emb race you. Billy wiped away a tear & sighed. The clockwor k man was only the second friend he'd ever had. The clockwork man 's rust y tin face was expressionless as he aske d you going to head som epla ce else Bill & Bill shrugged & said i don 't really kno w as ther e's muc h place else to go to & the cloc kwo rk man sighed then & look ed pained as only a cloc kwo rk man can as the blowing sand sifte d thru the jagg ed holes in his sides, settling over the gears, stilling them forever. Goo dby e Bill he said. Billy said goo dby e & got up & walked awa y a bit befo re he'd let him self cry. By the time he'd drie d his eyes & look ed back the cloc kwo rk man was covered in by sand & Billy never did find· his bod y even tho he look ed for it. 98 10 There are trange tales told of Billy the id of \\ hat happened ne t. J heard once he met up ' 1 ith Rimbaud in a bar & tarted bedding do' n ' ith him & the gang he d fallen in \\ i1h. I do11 t kno"'· There are a lot o torie one could tell i go ip \\'ere the point of it all. If he\ ent ba k hon1e he died a quiet old man. If he ta ed in Africa he wa r1e\1er heard from again. He' not a fit man to rell a tor . about. Ju t a tupid little reep \\'h one time in hi lif e perienced ome deep emoti n & killed an one \\1 ho ren1inded him of hi pain. nd tl1e lock"'ork man "'a no becter than hin1. All \Ve can a of him i he \ la Bill ' the Kid friend & tho it true there' er fe\ can make th,at claim \ ell there er e\\1 \ \ ould \ ant to. 1 1 1 ,, 1 I1 n )1ear the t\\' O men returned. The)' ere both gra er & qujer. he didn t peak much to friend . The , d talk but onl}' if the)' t l1 t u ere n 't Ji ten in g . hey had th ei r tin b o e f u 11 of di a r i e of l tter but then the ne\1 er ho ed them ne er opened therr1, n er talked about hat ic \ a had happened o er there bet - een th rn. hey \.\ ere till the be t of friend . The bought a hou e in the anne & Ii ed together. They opened a mall tationer hop & l1ired a lady to run it for them & Ii ed off that in ome. They n \'er '~' rote a g a i n . I n t he i r la t )'ear \\'hen \\' e came to i it th em al t th )' d tare at my cou in & me & a , )'e it \ a grand but g ze a\\'a & not a an thi11g el e unle, )' Otl ea\'e dropped on the t\ o of tl1em \\' hen they \\ ere ure you\ eren t li tening. E en tl1 nit v. a onl.' fragmentar entence the aid, random images that gre\\' out of e er more random thot & I - a ne er able tho I Ii t n d ften, to draw the \.\'hole thing together into an kind f r r an kind of plot \\fOt1Jd n1ake the ort of book I longed to \\1 rite. The di~d till talking at ea h other broken word & ttered image none of 11 ar und llnable to ce or hear u if had b en becau e of their d afne & their failing ight . 1 1 1 1 • 99 Twins - a history I • woman is born out of woman there is a womb inside her growing out of which a woman can emerge she emerges inside her a womb grows in which a woman can grow & emerge from she emerges later the first woman dies the third woman grows & her womb grows & a woman grows inside her eventua lly who emerges a womb growing inside her the second woman will also die men too are born out of these wombs men too or parts of men move into these wombs & men & women are born out of them the third woman will die as did the men & women before her grown out of wombs as will the men & women after her the fourth woman grows her womb grows inside her as they do & as they sometim es do twin women are born inside her inside her womb & their wombs grow inside them as they grow inside her & eventua lly they emerge eventua lly they marry twin brother s & this is how our story now begins ours story of twin women married to twin men who could'v e grown inside them except they would not have married them then twin women married twin men each of them had a womb in which a man or a woman or both could have grown each of them had a man who was a husband & let a part of him go back inside them to their womb one gave birth to a man & one gave birth to a woman that was the only differen ce you could see between them the man & the woman were born at the same time on the same day in the same hospital in two differen t beds where the twin women lay beside each other giving birth to them & the twin men each passed out cigars to everyon e there was only that one differen ce between them one woman had a man who would grow up with no womb inside him out of which another man or woman could emerge but who would send part of himself back into the womb of some other woman causing new men & women to emerge the other woman had a woman who would grow up her womb growing inside her inside of which other men & women would grow & then emerge the man who had grown inside the other twin woman married & his woman 's womb filled up with a woman & then the woman emerged her womb growing inside her the woman who had grown inside the other twin woman married & her man moved a part of himself into her womb & her womb filled up 100 with a man & later he emerged both times the twin men handed out cigars later these two women' s wombs filled with men & women at differen t times & all these times the twin men handed out cigars then the twin men & the twin women died they died altogeth er on the same day & they were still quite young & the fourth woman cried as did the man & the woman grown out of the twin women & the man's wife & the woman 's husband & the men & women born out of them & the mother & the father of the twin men & this is how our story of twin men married to twin women ends later the fourth woman dies the women grown out of the womb of the woman who grew inside the one twin woman & the women grown out of the womb of the woman married to the man who grew inside the other twin woman gave birth to many other men & women who grew up inside them & then emerged eventua lly the man & the woman who grew up inside the twin women died & eventua lly the men & women who grew up inside them & their women died & eventua lly after giving birth to other men & women the men & women they had given birth to died & eventua lly everybody dies after giving birth to everybo dy else & this is the way it is eventua lly • 101 from' Journal' some days i want to talk to you mommy some days i am talking to you so clearly i am lying in bed talking to you but you cant hear me at the top of the stairs i am talking to you every step of the way youre in the kitchen with the breakfast & you dont hear me you dont listen mommy when i touch your dress & stroke your skin you dont listen there is so much i could say i want to tell you mommy everythin g that has happened since you went away you went a way mommy now nothings the same is there any use in telling you this i have shut all the others out to .talk to you so many days spent shutting the others out & talking to you its so late at night mommy ive been out all day avoiding this story avoiding the moment when i'd have to speak now im speaking im speaking mommy & you arent listening so many times i would stand at the foot of the garden calling your name quietly so that you wouldn t hear me i wanted you to hear me for so many years i wanted you to hear so badly & i couldnt speak i 'd call your name to myself tired now finally frightene d but never stopping always calling quietly at the foot of the garden as the sun went down over the trellis & i looked for my pail & my shovel among the raspberry canes & i would squat there at the foot of the garden among the canes that edged the cinder alley & i would call to you & you wouldnt hear me & i'd ignore you when you called my name whats wrong youd say & i'd say nothing whats wrong youd say & i turned away all day i'd play by myself digging holes in the sandy soil watching you 102 as you did the washing hung the clothes out to dry arms reaching up the wide collars of your blouse hair bunched in a bun on your head youd reach up pinning the clothes on the line the clothespins held between your teeth or fetched from a pocket in your apron the line creaking as youd reel it out the metal wire rubbing against the rusted wheel the whole length of the yard filled with the clothes the void between the house & the garage between you & me mommy filled with the flapping sheets i'dhide among because i liked the smell of them liked the look of you hanging the clothes up to dry i liked it loved you wanted you mommy but i never called your name it gets hard to speak the despair is too close i wake up dreaming of dying as tho the hopelessness were that close so close that i feel choked by it overwhelmed i for get who i am & i walk down the stairs talking to you dancing down the stairs every step of the way plodding as ifthe hopelessness were there & palpable to be waded ·thru i can hear the orchestra playing & im singing calling your name a~ i move down the stairs to where you wait fixing breakfast fixing none of the things that are really broken & im crying laughing walk out the door not bothering to tell you where im going it gets harder & harder to tell you it gets harder & harder to tell who im speaking to sometimes i wake from dreams of you wanting to tou'c h you you arent there i want to run into your room the way i used to too frightened to go to bed too frightened to enter that emptiness i wanted you to comfort me to talk to me & you did sometimes i was never sure lingering in the hall not wanting to go downstairs afraid of what you or dad would say to me just standing there not moving staring at the walls 103 my floor theyr e all so far away & i want you there to make them real to me to make the room small er the light brigh ter & you weren t there & i wante d to call .your name & i didnt & wante d to run to you & i didnt i didnt i didnt later there· were times i called to you as later there were times you came times you didnt come or came angry or depre ssed as tho you & dad had been fighti ng you were unhap py starin g down at me your eyes full of tears & i was fright ened afraid to speak to you & you went away how i wishe d youd stay how i loved the days you did stay as later there were times you took me to the movie s & we sat togethe r times when dad was out of town we would put our coats on & walk down the street togeth er to the movie house & watch the doubl e bill & stop at your friend s on the way home for coffee watch ing while the two of you drank & talked & i would watch you ive never stopp ed watch ing you momm y ive never stopp ed callin g your name seated behin d the big chair or somew here where you could nt see me watch ing as you vacuu med the carpe t brush ing the hair back from your face with the back of your hand washing the dishe s the way the soap clung to your finger s wrists the tiny rings of bubbl es & i'd watch you i'd call your name & you would nt hear me could nt see me as you reach ed up to put the glasse s away reach ed up to put the plat~s away & i reach up to you & you dont see me you dont see me & i stand inthe doorw ay watch ing & you dont see me & i remem ber you dress ing the red dress you wore when i was six & you called to me askin g me to zip you up the white line of your slip above which your skin glowe d frame d by the two thin string s of silk clung to the outsid e curve of your shoul ders while the radio playe d sound ing sweet & 104 sickly like a music box over & over & i would slide the zipper up over & over dreaming covering you in as you thanked me & i zipped you up & you thanked me & i sang your name sang over & over again & again & you thanked me you thanked me mommy you thanked me & spoke my name & it is gone mommy all gone like the radio that day i cant remember the tune only faintly like the echo of an orchestra playing & you are dancing somewher e in the corner of a room it is all gone mommy like the red dress you put on you were going to a dance & dad was dressing down the hall putting on his tie his tie clip & his cuff links & you are asking me to zip you in in the red dress you wore especially for him & your hair was beautiful your lips were beautiful the two of you went dancing & left me home & i called your name mommy you weren t there & i never thot to call his name he never was there & i gave up calling your names gave up doing anything but dreaming dreaming always i was calling & you came & once you took me to the sea in the little sailors cap & white shorts i wore playing in the sand with my shovel & my pail you tied the halter on me soi wouldnt run away wouldnt run into the sea & drown tied me to the tree in the front yard when i played at home so i couldnt open the gate wouldnt run into the street couldnt move to where the cars could hit me & i described a circle on the lawn with my awkward ·stumblin g beat a circle with my hands & knees in the sand as i dragged myself round eraw ling exploring the limits of my keep the sand hot & you lay back & slept mommy in your old red bathing suit the one with the hole in it under your arm & you lay back with your arm over your face as i crawled around you in my sailors hat & couldnt 105 speak couldnt say your name could only cry or scream & didnt wouldnt sat in the sand watching you so as i dug holes filled them in & watched you so many years many years spent watching you so many years of spent mutely calling your name memories that are no use to me anymore emptied of feeling emptied of knowing emptied of anyone who was ever me who loved you who wanted you for his own accepting as he must as i must he can never have i can never have you mommy i never did have you you wrapped up as you were in your own story your own pain what was it you saw reflected in me as you gazed down your eyes so far a way farther a way than my arms could ever reach as you led me in the shadow of your longing led me in the careful pat& i learned them well terns you had learned mommy i learned them every step of the way just soi could watch you just soi could await the day when you would finally find me finally see me & you would turn to me then your eyes wide open & your hair come undone & you would open your arms & call to me call to me mommy & speak my name 106 Two Words: A Wedding for Rob & Sheron There are things you have words for, things you do not have words for. There are words that encompass all your feelings & words th.at encompass none . There are feelings you have that are like things to you, picked up & placed in the pocket, worn Ii ke the cloth the pocket is attached to, like a skin you live inside of. There is a body of feeling, of language, of friends; the body politic, the body we are carried inside of till birth, the body we carry our self inside of till death, a body of knowledge that tells of an afterlife, a heaven, an unknown everything we have many words for but cannot encompass. There are relationships between words & concepts, between things, between life & death, between friends & family, between each other & some other other. We wed words to things, people to feelings, speak of a true wedding of the mind & heart, intuition & intellect, & out of this form our realities . Our realities are wedded one to another, concepts & people are joined, new people conceived with in that mesh of flesh & realities, are carried forward in the body of the mother, the family, the bodily love we have for one another. They are creating their own reality each step of the way, daily, another kind of reality is born , each new word, person, expanding our vocabulary, our concepts, new realities are conceived, our old reality chclnges , the ' real ' grows realer every day. We are m rrying the flesh to the flesh, the word to the daily flux of lives we know & don 't know, our friends grow older & marry, raise children as you once were children with mother & fathers of your own , grow older, so many things you till lack words for, struggle to wed the inner & 107 outer worlds, the self to some other self or selves, confess your love & struggle with one another, together, conscious there is this word is you, your name, & that you are yet another thing or things you will never encompass, never exhaust the possibilitie s of, because you are wedded to the flux of life, because we are words and our meanings change . 1978 108 Lust (a little play) from Erotikon : some works for Dick Higgins [curtain rises on a black stage. lights come up on two men standing stage left . there is a clock on a table stage right .] 1st man: er .. . 2nd man: O! [both men fall silent. the clock's ticking suddenly becomes audible. the curtain falls.] 109 Naming3 2 • 4 • 6 11 13 • • . . • 15 • . 18 14 7 • • 1 • 3 •5 10, •8 9• . 12 1 • 16 • 20 _.21 .22 17°-~ 27 26 19 ·28 - .23 25 29 .•• 32 36 • . . 30 31 33 34 •35 • 37 43 • 44 •45 42 • 38 •41 . •40 39 1969-72 110 probable systems 9 problem : find VTOglc to nearest whole letter since logic = AU & AU = DG (base j) then VTOglc = ViSG(base j) performin g all necessary operations in base j then F. F C FJ OG . 0000 CI ABF H 00 G EF ACBC 0000 CI FI OCA rounding off to the nearest whole letter we have a given value for the \!logic as G (in both base j & base alphabet) commentary: what troubled me with th is system was the abrupt initial statement since base alphabet is not necessarily a readily accessible concept further the whole process of trying to pin something down exactly only serves to reconfirm Heisenberg's Principle of Uncertainty i.e. that the more exact you try to be in your description of something the further you move away from the reality of its existence & thus the rounding off to the nearest whole letter the concept of the whole letter is itself an interesting one which will be gone into a greater 111 detail in a future system since if you have H & if you have I what are the fractional letters in between them & what do they express 112 probable systems 21 the weight of speech (for Rube Goldberg) this system proposes to weigh human speech. like probable systems 17 it is governed by the variables present in the human speech community . this would however enable one to arrive at some average weights for standard words & sentences in various languages & opens up the possibility of comparing the weights of particular concepts expressed in differing languages. G (pressure sensimetal strip) F (pressure sensitive membrane) .,._ E A (air hose) (variable member D (pressure sensi- of human speech tive membrane) community 113 I H (readin d 1 I) (counter reset) L (ca libr at ed in P.5.1.) J (weigh t coun ter) B (speech funne l) K (p rotective cas in g) the human speaker (A) speaks into the speech funnel (B) a phoneme at a time . as he does so he vibrates the pre ssure sensitive membrane (D) which displaces th e air in the chamber (C) forcing the air up the air hose (E) & pushing out against the point of least resistance the second pressure sensitive membrane (F) which ra.ises the pressure sensitive metal strip (G) which is counter balanced to pull down on the pointer (M) thus causing it to move around the reading dial (H) &, because the read ing dial is calibrated (L) , to point to the correct weight in pounds per square inch of pressure . the weight of each phoneme is then recorded on the weight counter (J) using the set/ re-set dial (I) & is adjusted cumulatively as additional phonemes are spoken to form words & sen tences . 114 commentary : this system takes individual variables more fully into account than did probable systems 17 since thru the hooking up of a nose extension the actual weight of speech when used by a ventriloquist or a speaker whose mouth mobility was extremely limited could be measured . as with probable systems 17 however questions are raised by weighing speech or measuring its circumference which have to do with physical context & international standards both of which will be gone into more deeply in probable systems 24. 115 from Catullus poem XXVlll Pisonis comites. cohors in nis, apt1s sarcinulis et expeditis, Verani optime tuque mi Fabull , quid rerum geritis? s tisne cum i to uappa frigoraque et tam m tulistis? ecquidnam in tabulis patet luc Iii expensum, ut m1hi, qui m um cutu praetorem refero datum lucello? o Memm1, bene me ac diu supinum tota ista trabe lentus 1rrum ti . sed, quantum uideo. pari fuistis casu : nam nihilo minore uerp farti est1s . pete nobiles amico ! at uobis mala multa di d e ue dent, opprobria Romul1 Remiqu 116 Piss on his committees, cohorts in inanities apt as sarcasm & as expeditious, Verani was too optimistic my Fabulle, who put the geritol in his rum? satisfied? me?! with such vapid frigid rascals and too listless women? Damn him as well in tableaus patterned at Lucelli's expense, dumb monkey, who sucks the mothers' pretties for refreshment and yells 'Oh oh mommy, give me that godly supper to taste the trickle in my lips makes you my master' (said with big eyes, parents being first cause (such minor nihilistic truths are farts)). The prick's a noble friend! The voices of men milking gods with their teeth are as appropriate as Romulus's remarks. , 117 The Words - Montagnais Indian for John Robert Color 118 As for their superst1t1ous songs, they use them for a thousand purposes, for which the Sorcerer and that old man , of whom I have spoken , have given me the reason . Two savages, being once in great distress. seeing themselves w1th1n two finger lengths of death for want of food , were advised to sing, and when they had sung, they found something to eat ; since that time all their religion consists mainly in si nging, using the most barbarous words that come into their minds . The following are some of the words that they sang 1n a long superst1t1ous rite which lasted more than four hours . A1ase man itou , a1ase manitou , aiase manitou. ahiham. hehinham . hanhan , heninakhe hose heninahkhe , enigouano bahano an1he au1b1ni naninaouai nanahouai nanahouai aouihe ahahe aouihe : concluding with ho 1ho 1ho 1 I asked what these words meant , but not one could interpret them to me , for 1t is true that not one of them understands what he 1s singing, except in the tunes they sing for recreation . from ' Relation of What Occurred in New Fran ce on the Great River St. Lawrence , In the Year One Thousand Six Hundred Thirty- Four On the Beliefs , Superstitions , and Errors of the Montagna1s Savages' by Father Paul Le Jeune, S.J. The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (1954) , edited by Edna Kenton 119 Chant to the Fire-Fly TEXT Wau wau tay see! Wau wau tay see! E mow e shin Tahe bwau ne baun-e wee! Be eghaun - be eghaun - ewee! Wau wau tay see! v. . au wau tay see! Was sa koon ain je gun. Was sa koon ain je gun. TRANSLA T/ON Woe woe to see! Woe woe to see! Him oh he shine To he boy unique boy 'n wee! Be again - be again - whee! Woe woe to see! Woe woe to see! Once again aintcha ' gonna . Once again aintcha ' gonna. Chippew a (Ojibwa ), Schoolc raft (?: ?) as cited in Dell Hymes ' ' Some North Pacific Coast Poems ' 120 Translating Apollinaire Icharrus winging up, Simon the Magician fro m Judea everyone reaching for the sun high in a tree, great towers of stone built by the Aztecs, tearing their hearts out to offer them, wet and beating mountains , cold wind, t1acchu Piccu hiding in the sun unfound for centurie s cars whizzing by, sun thru trees passing , a dozen new wave films, flickeri ng on drivers ' glasses flat on their backs in the grass a dozen bodies slowly turning brown sun glares off the pages, soleil cou coupe", rolls in my window flat on my back on the floor becoming aware of it for an instant 11 1963 121 Translating Translating Apollinaire 32 I Negatives 4 for the burden of memory a's the whole remains shines clips from continuously , ~22 i am a poem by bill bissett deer in the forest between the trees where i sense them the traces their hooves leave in the wet earth wet day i cannot remember the way they used to move then when 1 was younger younger days the hunger returns the dry reds the nights the sky burned * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 123 along the highway starry night the white line burns the eyes deer crossing where the mind moves ( ) ( ) ( ( ) ) ) goodnight the mountains mass against the sky like clouds peaks invisible where the deer roam proud and wild given to me in a dream & transcribed jan uary 17 124 1967 Three Found Poems with David Aylward ex xp pe ec ct ta an nc cy exp expe xpe xpec pee pect ect ecta eta ct an tan tanc anc ancy ncy expec expect xpect xpecta pee ta pee tan ectan ectanc ctanc ctancy tancy expecta xpectan pectanc ectancy from Jacques Barzun's 'Tomorrow's Illiterates' Turner's Golden Vision Learn . Substantives No comparison but by Adjectives, as, good bonne bad, Beau, fine Positive Plus Beau finer Comparative le Plus Beau Superlative of Finer. Masculine Le White Blanc Positive Whiter Blanc Comparative Whitest Le Plus Blanc Superlitive. from C. Lew is Hind 's 'Turner's Golden Visions ' (from the back of a drawing of Somerset House) 125 Puzzle And Re You'll Ceive A Of Pound Tea me, solved to ly right first this bring and sit stop streets you'll bert Al Yonge and at VI there the Kin pe shop that you if want to good get tea see, you will and words right these read advertise ment in GRIP Saturday July 191873 126 from 'A Collaboration' with Wayne Clifford II : 5 In the garden speech continues in the silence the pen moves & words flow out. Moon looms behind the wave, draws all ocean to it. Feet, ankles, in a sIu r of su rf, sus u r ru s on ski n the din of ocean's deafness grinds the backwash. Feel it clearly. It is not in seeing, no, it isn't in the ear. Is sea's undeadened deafness deciphers sand, deft syllables in frothy traceries. Drift and wash, this talking, welter of sign unreadable, that drags a hiss out between the teeth, a tide's noisy breath . Behind you on the shoulder of the earth a stand of scrubby olive, leaves white with salt. Sour fruit scattered , the season late. The garden speaks in seed and rot. It is not 127 in eye or ear. Clear as the rime on leaf or hair it speaks, sprouting comely imperishable death . You, in the halfplace, how works the brine to blind you, the growl of crawling pebbles under the surge to hollow a ringing in your skull? In the garden at your back, spray drizzles thru the near furrows . The lines of young shoots wither, and those along dark files farther converge to obscure green, but you look to where moon flashes at the edge of wind, over horizon's arc and your eyes dance in the sockets of waves your ears repeat conches' empty roaring. She gathers out of sea to memory wrack or spume, a shape of arm tossed against a crest, a flux in the belly, Naxos tangled in your mouth like a lie. Her hair, a clump of algae. 128 The garden 's will unkept still. Give rt up dead man . Unreturning. She rises . As your feet sink in the sand . Neither you nor I, dead man . She rises , and we meet. Each . ' "The sea is also a garden ": Voice doubled, a man & a woman speaking years apart. We speak her speaking of his heart. The sea U's too aware of sky's line 's blue ' n wind in decline. The garden disappears in sand beneath the wave. Saviour. In the late hours grieving, salt on your face in the night wind, this is no place for the luxury of sin only the necessity of change & struggle mur mer maid . 129 Give it up to the living distant jingle of change. On the night wind amid the humous & the almost human among the memories of summer & your lover persistent tricks of memory's face in the moon (child in the brain) your aging hand has lost the claim to reach or touch (in the face of women, children they might give you). Neither you, nor I, nor a dreamed we. Among the dunes & the struggling weeds. Along the shore towards the lights of boats & houses is also a garden grows uncared for. Among the scrub struggling to define a language between the sea & between her thighs where all memory flows from her into you. Speech. It is the body cries out absence of philosophy lived despair. "'The sea is also ... "' & also ... also ... 130 from 'In England Now That Spring' with Steve Mccaffery 6 Above Ambleside the water falls down 1n a tumble towards W1ndermer clear air & sun again Turner vignette cross the shadow of a p n - this by the ghyll side carries the sound into the lake shallow waters over ston over the silent memory of a human past passed thru the length of this brief noise into the great silence which surrounds that place words cannot reach water ignores or is not touched by its own voice speaking peculiar to th is glade gully of stones & trees among the green leaves & darkened branches persistent push of sky incessant words among the these. 132 Particular Music text for 4 Horsemen performance s+~"" ~te~\gei PQ.,, I ~te ~•e rt.-f._e\ "'+__ft_!ee \op po~ 4'-t~+\Mt ' o""'"' 1'f t~~ t('.~t(ttte, pp o""'"' po11t.. tee +fe po~ po~ te.~+u. ,.()_ppa"" w po~ ,.o.._ ,.,.o._,..,,. l'O""' ----,....... ~----~~~~-----...... ' t-•tfttff t(lo lo I.I.al• 133 - ,.... s ______....______....______.........__ .. --~----- ~-- .,............... pmm_ .... .... ................. sc:.:::.:::1.__...... _ ..-- -rt ~-~~~~~..m..iii-- s ... ,. '0""' p R ...1.._ __ ~•tip ,.tip f'O"""' ~ po~ 134 P•"" p•i 't ''"~ ti•<-- •••,.. +tr•" t•u.lill ..,,.. p;t it sp it' ....... .....~..................,._ '------~---- R -- -- --....--~........_ -..__.._-.1....~ _.: t 135 from 'Sorrow Laid As This One' sound-text collaboration between members of Co-Accident & the Toronto Research Group r'._ ~·k, -~91)·. . ~I ' ~ 0 ,ft - - r1""" I " . . . . fA, Baltimore, U .S.A. Nov13, 1978 136 from 'The Body: In Darkness' nine Vancouver texts with Steve Mccaffery .....,. .. .. ' • •• ' , . f . • #- I •c)J .. . .. ... .. .. ...,• . .. 'Feb 23 , 1979 137 Maps 1 'a day' a state of mind you place yourself in a trance your eyes wide open or a heightening letting defenses drop opening the senses up & out widening into the wide world 2 i"don't need the framework i don't need the crutch (th is is the personal section) what i need is the trust in my own being 138 you don' need the system you don ' t need technique except as a ay to get you th re ready 3 the moment does not come the moment is continual can you reach it January 27th 1979 13 Bibliography books Journeying & the returns (also known as bp; includes Journey ing & the returns (a book poem -sequence) , Letters Home (an envelop e of visual poem / objects ) Borders (a recordin g of the author's sound poems) & Wild Thing (a flip poem) ; Toronto , Coach House Press, 1967) Two Novels (contain s Andy & For Jesus Lunatic k ; Toronto , Coach House Press , 1969; revised edition , Toronto , Coach House Press , 1971 ) Knofessions of An Elizabethan Fan Dancer (London , England , Writer's Forum , 1969; revised edition , Toronto , Weed / Flower Press , 1973) Still Water (Vancou ver, Talonbo oks, 1970) ABC: the aleph beth book (Ottaw a, Oberon Press , 1971) Monotones (Vancou ver, Talon books, 1971) The Other Side Of The Room (Toront o, Weed / Flower Press, 1972) The Captain Poetry Poems (Vancou ver, Blew Ointme nt, 1972) The Martyrology Books I & II (Toront o, Coach House Press, 1972 ; rev i sed edition , Toronto , Coach House Press , 1977) Love: A Book of Remembrances (Vanco uver, Talon books, 1974) The Martyrology Books Ill & IV (Toront o, Coach House Press , 1976) Craft Dinner (Toront o , Aya Press , 1978) Journal (Toront o, Coach House Press , 1978) Translating Translating Apollinaire: A Preliminary Report (Milwau kee , USA, Membr ane Press , 1979) In England Now That Spring (with Steve Mccaff ery; Toronto , Aya Press , 1979) As Elected: Selected Writing 1962-1 979 (Vancou ver, Talon books, 1980) Zygal: A Book of Mysteries & Translations (Toront o , Coach House Press, 1980) pamphl ets Cycles Etc. (Cleveland , USA, 7 Flowers Press, 1965) Scraptures: Second Sequence (Toront o , Ganglia Press , 1965) Calendar (Woodc hester, England , Openin gs Press, 1966; 2nd enlarged edition , Toronto , Rhinoce ros Broadsheets, 1970) Strange Grey Town (with David Aylward ; Toronto , Ganglia Press, 1966; 2nd variant ed ition , Toronto , Ganglia Press, 1969) Scraptures: Third Sequence (Toront o , Ganglia Press, 1966) Scraptures: Fourth Sequence (N iagara Falls, USA, press :today, 1966) Fodder Folder (Toront o , Ganglia Press, 1966) Portrait of David (Toront o, Ganglia Press, 1966) A Vision in the U of T Stacks (Toront o , Ganglia Press, 1966) 140 A Little Pome For Yur Fingertips (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1966) Langwedge (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1966) Alphabit (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1966) Stan's Ikon (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1966) The Birth of 0 (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1966) Chocolate Poem (Privately printed, 1966) Last Poem With You In Mind (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1967) Cold Mountain (Burnable Edition) (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1967) Scraptures: tenth sequence (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1967) Scraptures: eleventh sequence (Toronto, grOnk, 1967) Ruth (Toronto, Fleye Press, 1967) The Year of the Frog (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1967) D.A.Dead (A Lament) (Toronto, grOnk, 1968) Ballads of the Restless Are (Sacramento, USA, Runcible Spoon, 1968) The Complete Works (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1968) Kon 66 & 67 (Toronto, grOnk, 1968) Dada Lama (Leeds, England, Tlaloc, 1968) Beast (Sackville, Mount Allison University, 1969) Postcard (Toronto, Coach House Press, 1969) Nights on Prose Mountain (Toronto, grOnk, 1969) A New Calendar (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1969) Third Fragment From A Poem Continually In The Process Of Being Written (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1969) Astronomical Observations: July 69 (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1969) Sail (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1970) A Condensed History of Nothing (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1970) Lament (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1970; 4nd Edition, London, England, Writer's Forum, 1970) Beach Head (Sacramento, USA, Runcible Spoon, 1970) The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid (Toronto, Weed/Flower Press, 1970) Grease Ball Comics 1 (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1970) Parallel Texts 1 (with Steve Mccaffery) (Toronto, Anonbeyond Press, 1971) Parallel Texts 2 & 3 (with Steve Mccaffery) (Toronto, Anonbeyond Press, 1971) Collabrations (with Steve Mccaffery) (Toronto, grOnk, 1972) Grease Ball Comics 2 (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1972) Scraptures: Basic Sequences (Toronto, Massassauga Editions, 1973) Aleph Unit (Toronto, Seripress, 1974) Unit of Four (Toronto, Seri press, 1974) A Draft of Book IV of The Martyrology (Toronto, Privately Printed, 1976) Scraptures 2nd Sequence: Alternate Takes (Vancouver, BC Monthly, 1977) From My Window (Toronto, Seri press, 1978) Alphhabet llphabet (Toronto, Seri press, 1978) 141 White Sound: A Variation (Toronto, grOnk, 1978) from In Lakeland (Toronto, grOnk, 1978) Mollie Darling (Toronto, Ganglia Press, 1978) The Martyrology Book V Chain 8 (Toronto, CHP Manuscript Editions, 1979) For Christopher James (Toronto, grOnk, 1979) Absolute Statement For My Mother (Toronto, Seripress, 1979) Door to Oz (Toronto, Seri press, 1979) Love Affair (Toronto, Seripress, 1979) Movies (Toronto, Seripress, 1979) Doors: To Oz & Other Landscapes (Toronto, grOnk, 1979) Familiar (Toronto, Privately Printed , 1980) editor The Cosmic Chef Glee & Perloo Memorial Society Under The Direction of Captain Poetry Presents An Evening of Concrete Courtesy Oberon Cement Works (Ottawa, Oberon Press, 1970) The Pipe: An Anthology of Recent Czech Concrete (with Jiri Valoch) (Toronto, Coach House Press/ grOnk, 1973) The Story So Four (with Steve Mccaffery) (Toronto, Coach House Press , 1975) Sound Poetry: A Catalogue (with Steve Mccaffery) (Toronto, Underwhich Editions, 1978) The Arches: Selected Poetry of Frank Davey (Vancouver, Talon books, 1980) prints The Adventures of Milt the Morph in Colour (Collaborations with Barbara Caruso) (Toronto, Seripress, 1973) H: An Excursion (Collaborations with Barbara Caruso) (Toronto, Seri press, 1976) radio serials Little Boy Lost Meets Mother Tongue (Broadcast in six episodes over a six week period by the CBC as part of their IDEAS series on language , 1969) records Borders (7 in., 33 1/3 rpm, issued as part of Journeying & the returns, Toronto, Coach House Press, 1967) Motherlove (12 in., 33 1/3 rpm, Allied Records, Toronto, 1968) Another Day Older (included on SEE/HEAR 1, Vancouver, Talonbooks, 1969) 142 Appendix (side 1of7 in ., 33 1/3 rpm, issued as part of Sean O'Huigin's A Simple Introduction To Experimental Poetry, Windsor, Black Moss Press, 1978) tapes bpNichol (1 hr. cassette, Toronto, High Barnet, 1971) publications as part of the Four Horsemen The Four Horsemen (programme) (Sackville, Mount Allison University, 1970) Canadada (12 in ., 331/3 rpm Ip, Toronto, Griffin House, 1972) Horse D'Oeuvres (Toronto, Paperjacks, 1975) Live In The West (12 in ., 33 1/3 rpm Ip, Toronto, Starborne, 1977) Canadada (1 hr. stereo cassette, Toronto, Starborne, 1977) A Little Nastiness (Toronto, grOnk, 1980) Bootleg (1 hr. cassette, forthcoming1981) translations Six Fillious (translations of Robert Filliou's '14 Chansons et 1 Charade', with George Brecht, Dick Higgins, Steve Mccaffery & Dieter Roth, Milwaukee, USA, Membrane Press, 1978) has also adapted science fiction & fairy tales for the comic book medium, had one short play & one musical produced as well as producing additional material for the Canadian Mime Theatre, contributed some material to & was a featured soloist in R. Murray Schafer's APOCALYPSIS, & has had work anthologized in numerous anthologies including CONCRETE POETRY : Britain Canada United States (Stuttgart, Germany, Editions Hansjorg Mayer, 1966), New Wave Canada (Toronto, Contact Press, 1966), Anthology of Concrete Poetry (New York, USA, Something Else Press, 1967), Concrete Poetry : A World View (Bloomington, USA, Indiana University Press, 1968), 20th Century Poetry & Poetics (Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1969), Gordon To Watkins To You (Toronto, New Press, 1970), New Directions In Canadian Poetry (Toronto, Holt Rhinehart & Winston, 1971), Future's Fictions (Princeton, USA, Panache, 1971), Evolution of Canadian Literature : 1945-70 (Toronto, Holt Rhinehart & Winston, 1973), Canadian Poetry: The Modern Era (Toronto, M&S, 1977), OutPosts/ Avant-Posts (Erin, Press Porcepic, 1978), The Poets of Canada (Edmonton, Hurtig, 1978), The Long Poem Anthology (Toronto, Coach House Press, 1979), Text-Sound Texts (New York, USA, William Morrow, 1980), Fiction of Contemporary Canada (Toronto, Coach House Press , 1980). 143 acknowled gements the alphabet from Alphhabet llphabet was hand drawn by Barbar Caruso . the typograph ical interpreta tion of ' Blue s' is by Vivien Hala was originally printed at the Bath Academ of Art rn England . the t1tl for ' Not What The Siren Sang . .' was given to the author by Margaret Avison . the typograph y 1n the excerpt from Journal 1s by Glenn Goluska. all type not set in Syntax 1s reshot from the or1g1nal publi cation of the work . Aleph Unit 1s shot from Barbara Caruso 's handcut rlk screen versions as opposed to the author's original art the author would like to thank the various magazines & presses under whose imprints these works have appeared over the years. he encour ages you to support your little presses they are the only true friend of poetry. 144 BRO ~ K ~I . ( I\ \111 .\RI , I H.srrY ), 1 \RI<> a LIBR \RY SELECTED WRITING As Elected bp Nichol Edited by bp Nichol &.. jack David Introduction by jack David This volume includes work beginn ing w ith bpN ichol 's visual poetry (progressing from the use of individual letters , to words , to distinct shapes on the page) , moving through his sound poetry (in its written form) for one voice only, to poems wh ich combine visual and traditional lyric qualities (leading to an excerpt from The Martyrology) , and concluding w ith a selec tion of prose writings, a short play, translations , found poems and collabora tions . bpNichol was born in Vancouver in 1944 . He studied at The University of British Colum bia , worked briefly as a Grade 4 teacher, then moved to Toronto where he became involved with Therafields , working in the area of inter and intra personal communica tion . He is the author of 18 books of poetry and prose and numerous pamphlets ; has been a publisher himself, under the imprints of Ganglia Press and grOnk ; and is an editor at Coach House Press and Underwhich Edi tions . He was the winner of the Governor General 's Award for Poetry in 1970 for : Sti ll Water, The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid, The Cosmic Chef, ed ., and Beach Head. Other important titles include : The Martyrology Books I to IV; Two Novels; Journal; Craft Dinner; LOVE: A Book of Remembrances; Zygal: A Book of Mysteries and Translations and Translating Translating Apollinaire. 'bpNichol 's writing is the most courageous body of work in Canadian litera ture today.' - Frank Davey in From There To Here. ' ... Work so complex and exploratory that several readings will just begin to make its wonders apparent .' - Douglas Barbour in The Toronto Star. 'The result of all this experimentation is that even when Nichol comes - as he does - to write recognizable poetry, it has an imagist sharpness , hard ened into obsidian by an intellectual force the imagists - Hulme excepted avoided .' - George Woodcock in Literary History of Canada . The cover is a photograph of an H-shaped tree in the Nass Valley of northern British Columbia . The photograph was taken by Kim Ondaatje . The photo graph of the author was taken by Andy Phillips . ISBN 0-88922-176-6