••

..

LI

.l\RY.

o~r -.:.\il VERSI*t.t

v
,-.--

:n

0

ocs

·r - ,..
• •

'
I

•

•

r --

-

I

'
I

'I

l

__________

:__.

.__

BEACH HEAD

by

b p Nichol

transitions 66 & 67

Runclble Spoon
Sacramento, Gallfornla

copyright 1970 hy
hp r·JI cho I

0 i-~10 r PUt 'C IOLE SPOOtJ
books by bp Nichol
in c lude:

SCRA?TURES FC'URTH SEQUENCE (o.p)
BA LLADS OF THC RESTLESS ARE

covE: r by D. r. V/agnc r

SEA

•

-

a letter In january
to wayne & julie clifford

*
having risen fnom the bath
old Images return
sea
moving fnto me
only the echos left

what moves now are ghosts
(hosts of the old fonms)
as ships moved westward where
a continent crumbled
having struggled this long
what the eye sees leaves no return
from that one journey that accords
a turning to your world
Ca shift of forces)

I

•

**
this night the sea moves into me
dark street
no way of sailing over it
& so i must move thru it alone

& walk beyond my I ies

nameless

but the words are on me hang heavy
&the voice cries to be heard
Inside me all inside me
dark world

***
we can say the myths end
return ful I circle &
the actual untangles its confusions

the world ls given its history

his sto~ never chanqes
~

~

some journey is done
& the ear gathers the words near
to measure what one has won

SEQUENCE

morning:
morning spreads

Its soft fat fingers
ov9r our faces
pokes them
Into our eyes
surprising us awake
with soft punches
afternoon:

away.

a way

of looking at things)
keep moving. shifting
perspect I vas
(never see Into It
never get close

•
evenang:

being becomes
counting the ways
you've
trapped yourse If
or( i
should say) can
come to that. be
careful
of I i es I i ke " i
love you" ties
that bind you
when

you really can't

THE FUGITIVE
for issac
1

the law is
inside me
bids me bide
my time
& t f de .. · ·
is .the da i I y
rt• s •1ng

of emotions - "who
are they? \'lhat
do they
want? when
wiII they
fa i I me?"

2

"how far
to go to
the border?"
sat ta I I in
the saddle

now they
hunt him down
stoop-shou I de red
half-aday's rtde from
the other side

3

the problem at
this point
how to
face yourself, the sun
inside
your eyes
burning
4

"locks open
very
easily" the key is
1n the .statement
she had said
he knew
5

to get
inside the border
is to be
inside
a matter of
living
to get out

•

LAND
•

•

as I
is eyes
as

I am now

able
to see
clearly
the way
before me
as
I am now

whole
and able to be
here
so
I would give you
vowels, vows
that my nouns
make, breaks
in the s i I ences
m'y mind

had made
as it moved
(not thru
the I
for
the eye
was closed) ln
the past -

tense Cas
I was
then in

my speech
even) uneven
the rhythm
broken by
the to & fro
motion of

the eye
I id

as I hid
the I i ght
from myself

saying
others
had done so
so
my eyes
now
open
letting
the I f ght
•

tn, as

my mouth
opens
letting

my tongue
order
the verbs
the I i ght

I

has moved
to action

as impulse as
now
my blood
races, the heat
the I ight
brings bringing
the v1ords
f o rth in

such heat
the heart
flows

..

with them

•

as
I do

now
flow
the eye
open, one

)

continuous
c i rc I i n g, t i g ht
into I i ght
into tight

1

wha·t vis ions i have come
not wlth the night
not wtth the chaos but
the memory of chaos
as now
at journeys end
i have emerged from chaos
Into the infinite order
of trght, my eyes
open
to the suns light
the moon reflected
as cold surfaces will
when i walked in chaos
when
the chaos was in me
and ruled me
what visions i had then
were of the chaos
seen as
an infinite jumble
of shadow & dark thots
the head remembers
long after the dark is gone,
long after the light has come
penetrating
the farthest reaches
of the sou I

& the soul remembers
in speech (the scarred
syllables> & the speech
flows
& cleanses

2
•

what has begun in darkness
remains there
tho
we would have it here (one
i had loved then
as love was possible
when
it was myself f hid from
in he r - as she was mirrors
i saw myself in- as
we are mirrors for each other,
the dark turning of
our souls, caught
as the moon is
servant of
the sun) beside us
as lt was
then (as she was
beside me
& the darkness
in her - as she became
the darkness
inside me - a desperate
reaching for the moon in_
the darker pool withln
& cannot be
again

\
•

I

J

up
into my eyes,
the words
upon my face
in the moon's light

'

speaking
from our eyes
in the darkness,
the outer edges
of our skin
touching
the grace
of touch
gone, a
stumb 1 i ng

motion
we spoke of
(then) as love

-

•

under the sea
we were poor fish creatures
our desperate voices
crying to each other
fn the darkness
tho she was land and
i hungered for her
my floundering drove me down
further and further from the light
tfll only the dark was there
(the silver bubbles of her breath) and
she was not there
and

I could not reach her

I

'

we move
separate Iy
the knowledge
of

each I imb
assures

always
the memory of
the darkness
c I i ngs

a darker opening in

the heart of things

D.r. sent these back to me & said could f make any
(qllestions) changes to these i wanted to and send
them t3ck. i couldn't. t made only one poem dfffernet
& left it up to him. i am no longer the person I
was when i wrote these. my musculature is different
& (as a result) my breathing. breath lines that
made sense then no longer make sense. the LAND section (one long poem) has the panicky short breath
J ine i was in at the time, that poem written in a
period of time that terror ruled me as never before
or since. if i changed it now it would make no
sense. what could be more I I logical than to look
back & say that the breath line makes no sense when
in fact that was how i breathed then? these poems are
offered up in friendship to whoever hears them
and breaths them with their own body.

bp Nichol
Toronto, Canada

PS

~S~'1

142799

I 3:J._ BROCK UNIVERSITY
B1ST. CATHARINES. ONTARIO

\910

LIBRARY

&.,.07