some lines of poetry

from the notebooks of bpNichol.

 

by bpNichol; edited by Derek Beaulieu & Gregory Betts.

 

Toronto, Coach House Books, [september] 2o24.

ISBN 978 1 55245 490 9.

 

5-1/16 x 7, 8o sheets ivory zephyr antique laid perfectbound in light blue mayfair card wrappers, all except inside covers & 3 pp (2, 8, 16o) printed black offset with purple foil letterpress addition to front cover.

 

introduction by Derek Beaulieu & Gregory Betts.

 

includes:

i) some lines of poetry (front cover; concrete poem in metallic purple; also in black on white p.87 between (liv) & (lv) below)

ii) "the light hit them too wrapped up in himself no self to tie into making" (front & rear endpage; prose excerpt (from --?--) in holograph reproduced white on grey)

iii) a river (p.17; concrete poem)

iv) Some Mountains (pp.18-19; concrete poetry in 3 numbered parts:

–1. "TKYSMPEIASKTSY" (p.18)

–2. "AINMOIIUNTAIN" (p.18)

–3. "INSMOUNTAINSMOUNTAINSMOUN" (p.19))

v) The Body: In Light (p.2o; sound score)

vi) Steve McCaffery 'The Risk of Video' (pp.21-22; graphic sequence in 3 parts:

–1. Steve adjusts set for 50th time in attempt to essay performance at York University August 1, 1980 (p.21)

–2. A whole set of principles that were rejected around framing (p.22)

–3. Two channels (p.22))

vii) Saussurian Connections (p.23; mathemaical linguistics)

viii) Saussure Linedrawing (p.24; concrete poem)

ix) Landscape 8: Birds Among Clouds Above a Stormy Sea (p.25; graphic)

x) Landscape # 9: Flock of birds over the ocean (p.26; graphic)

xi) Afternoon Attentions: 3 (pp.27-28; concrete poetry in 7 parts:

–1. "plants" (p.27)

–2. "air" (p.27)

–3. "light" (p.27)

–4. "fire" (p.27)

–5. "stick" (p.28)

–6. "log" (p.28)

–7. "and a" (p.28))

xii) Horizon # 3: Translation (p.29; concrete poem)

xiii) "fifty and one" (p.3o; poem in 3 numbered parts (of 4(?), apparently skipping part 2):

–1. "fifty and one" (7 lines)

–3. "many or one 'r" (7 lines)

–4. "hello" (5 lines))

xiv) birds emerging from the alphabet (p.31; visual poem)

xv) fish swimming out of alphabet (p.32; visual poem)

xvi) nothing emerging from alphabet (p.33; visual poem)

xvii) Sketching 2: CCMC with Steve McCaffery (pp.34-38; poem in 9 numbered parts:

–1. "an empty stage" (p.34; 5 lines)

–2. "birds" (p.34; 11 lines)

–3. "saxophony" (p.35; 5 lines)

–4. "screaming or a kind of pleading" (p.35; 7 lines)

–5. "voices / ices / ov -" (pp.35-36; 13 lines)

–6. "two beats" (p.36; 7 lines)

–7. "auto horn" (p.37; 8 lines)

–8. "quareltet" (p.37; 7 lines)

–9. "altoed states" (p.38; 1o lines))

xviii) Mono Tones IV (pp.39-4o; poem, 25 lines)

xix) to become obessed with the single image (pp.41-5o; prose in 6 parts:

–1. A Introduction (pp.41-42)

–2 "the days accumulate their borders out of the sense of things" (pp.43-44; roman-numeralled "I")

–3. "phillip watched the water churn the white foam not quite" (pp.45-46; roman-numeralled "III")

–4. "maybe there are faces make sense maybe there's a point" (pp.46-48; roman-numeralled "II")

–5. "i can still see your back disappearing thru the trees the leaves" (pp.48-49; roman-numeralled "III")

–6. "i have said everything i can say having started out so sure i" (pp.49-5o; roman-numeraled "IV"))

xx) sketch # 6 (p.51; concrete poem)

xxi) STANZAS (Some Notes) (p.52; prose)

xxii) "finally we are the homeless ones" (p.53; poem, 27 lines)

xxiii) 8 8-Lines H's (pp.54-55; visual poem in 8 numbered parts)

xxiv) For Ellie (p.56; poem, 12 lines)

xxv) Martyrlogy 7 (VII) (p.57; poem, "at night, looking out from the Lido", 18 lines)

xxvi) Martyrology Bk 9 (p.58; poem, "A pageant", 16 lines)

xxvii) "you along" (p.59; (incomplete?) poem in 2 parts:

–1. "you along for the ride" (8 lines)

–2. "mist" (18 lines))

xxviii) 8 Implied H's (pp.6o-61; visual poetry in 8 numbered parts)

xxix) single letter translation of Basho's FROG/POND/PLOP (p.62; visual poem)

xxx) 26 Letters (p.63; visual poem)

xxxi) 4 Possible Q's (p.64; visual poem in 4 numbered parts)

xxxii) the illogicality of it (p.65; linguistics chart)

xxxiii) Some of H's (p.66; visual poem)

xxxiv) Second Vortext (pp.67-68; sound poem)

xxxv) 5 H's (p.69; visual poem)

xxxvi) 25 H's (p.7o; visual poem)

xxxvii) 5 Implied H's (p.71; visual poem)

xxxviii) S Ays (Book X) (p.72; prose essay)

xxxix) 8 Dots # 1 (p.73; visual poem in 2 parts:

–1. Take 1

–2. Take 2)

xl) 8 Dots # 2 (p.73; visual poem)

xli) 8 Dots # 3 (p.73; visual poem)

xlii) Landscape # 16 (p.74; concrete poem)

xliii) Horizon # 10: sketch 6 (p.75; concrete poem)

xliv) After Michael Snow: Lndscape # 7 (p.76; concrete poem)

xlv) The Sudden Setting of the Moon Landscape # 18: A Narrative (p.77; concrete poem)

xlvi) Landscape # 18: Sketch 7 (p.78; concrete poem)

xlvii) Words (p.79; concrete poem)

xlviii) Counting (p.8o; concrete poem)

il) Three Lines (p.81; concrete poem)

l) Counting 2 (p.82; concrete poem)

li) Absolute Statement For My Mother 2 (p.83; concrete poem)

lii) "slight sealight" (p.84; poem, 2 lines)

liii) San Juan Solo (p.85; poem, 16 lines)

liv) Passages: Winter (p.86; concrete poem)

lv) Seascape With Bird (p.88; concrete poem)

lvi) Water Poem # 7 (p.89; concrete poem)

lvii) A Line of Research (p.9o; visual poem)

lviii) Eight Lines (p.91; visual poem)

lix) Point to Point: One Dozen H's (pp.92-93; visual poem)

lx) Sewing Card (p.94; visual poem; draft of p.1 of bp & Eleanor Nichol's th'read)

lxi) Sewing Card / 2nd Version (p.95; visual poem; draft of bp & Eleanor Nichol's one thread: two H's)

lxii) Implied Sculpture # 1 (p.96; graphic plan for a visual poem)

lxiii) Some Lines of Prose (p.97; concrete poem)

lxiv) Fin de Ligne (p.98; graphic)

lxv) 26 H's (p.99; visual poem in 26 panels)

lxvi) After an Inscription in the Egyptian Museum (p.1oo; visual poem)

lxvii) First Turin Text: Vertical (p.1o1; sound score)

lxviii) Second Turin Text: Horizontal (p.1o2; sound score)

lxix) Third Turin Text: Vertical + Horizontal (p.1o3; sound score)

lxx) Fifth Turin Text: Vertical, Horizontal + Vertical (p.1o4; sound score)

lxxi) Running in the Family (p.1o5; concrete poem)

lxxii) Homage to Schwitters (p.1o6; visual poem)

lxxiii) Cosmology (p.1o7; concrete poem)

lxxiv) song (p.1o7; concrete poem)

lxxv) Instructions re Incomplete H (p.1o8; concrete poem)

lxxvi) "o8/o8/88" (p.1o9; visual poem)

lxxvii) nsformation 1 (p.11o; concrete poem)

lxxviii) Curled Paper Sculpture: Homage to Kurt Schwitters (p.111; visual poem)

lxxix) 'IM: mortality play (pp.112-113; poem draft, 88 lines)

lxxx) Translation of Niikuni Seiichi (p.114; concrete poem based on Seiichi Niikuni's "rain")

lxxxi) "MARTYROLOGY" (p.115; concrete poem)

lxxxii) parked poem (p.116; poem, 6 lines)

lxxxiii) radio work (p.117; poem, 17 lines)

lxxxiv) for robert duncan (p.118; concrete poem)

lxxxv) 'Don't Forget the Author' (pp.119-153; prose lecture includes anonymous audience questions)

lxxxvi) "THE END" (p.154; concrete poem)

 

also includes:

lxxxvii) WILD WORD PLAY: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE NOTEBOOKS, by Derek Beaulieu & Gregory Betts (pp.9-16; prose in 2 parts:

–1. "bpNichol (1944-1988) was the author of thirty books of" (pp.9-14; with quotes from

––a. ["first notebook"] (pp.1o (x2), 11 (x5))

––b. "Meanwhile 4oo" (p.12)

––c. "Meanwhile 39o" (p.13))

–2. "After the birth of his daughter, Sarah, Nichol spent more" (pp.14-16; with quote from

––a. "Banff Publishing Workshop programme", by [--?--] (on Nichol's lecture Don't Forget the Author)))

lxxxviii) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, by Derek Beaulieu & Gregory Betts (p.155; prose)

lxxxix) ABOUT THE AUTHOR, by [--?--] (p.156; prose)

xc) ABOUT THE EDITORS, by [--?--] (pp.156-157; prose in 2 parts:

–1. Derek Beaulieu (pp.156-157)

–2. Gregory Betts (p.157))

xci) "One of Canada's most beloved poets, bpNichol (1944-1988), left a", by [--?--] (rear cover; with quotes from

–1. bpNichol ("apprenticeship to language", from --?--)

–2. Michael Ondaatje, from Afterword (to An H in the Heart))

___________________________

 

• a note on the editorial claim that some lines of poetry "selects eighty unpublished works" from Nichol's notebooks:

first off, even excluding the endpaper reproduction, there're 85 distinct works in here, not 8o; but it's the "unpublished" claim that seems presumptuous in the light of, most obviously:

• Horizon # 3 appeared in Some Scapes, 1986, & An H in the Heart, 1994

• fish swimming was on the cover of Song for saint ein, 199o

• CCMC with Steve McCaffery appeared as a pamphlet in 1988 & was included in both Art Facts (Chax Press, 199o) & An H in the Heart

• single letter translation appeared in Cross-Canada Writers' Quarterly vol.9 nr.3/4, 1987 & Rampike vol.6 nr.1 , 1988

• Horizon # 1o appeared in Some Scapes

• After Michael Snow appeared on the rear cover of Some Scapes

• A Line of Research was issued in unique multiples in 1993

• both "Sewing Card" & "Sewing Card / 2nd version" are drawings of the plotted punctures for threading patterns by Eleanor Nichol, released as collaborations in 1987 as th'read ("Sewing Card" the pattern printed on p.1 (of 4)) & one thread: 2 H's (Sewing Card 2)

• Turin Texts have appeared in Offerta Speciale in issues [unnumbered, june 1987] (texts 2 & 3) & nr.1, may 1988 (4, 5 & 6)

• for robert duncan appeared separately in 1998

 

i may have missed some things.

Done