When I wrote this many years ago my computer was a 286. Some of this graduate thesis went missing and this is my feeble attempt at a reconstruction.
Barbed Lines – 1994
By Reggie Hart
Table of Contents
PLASTIC MEMORIES
Plastic Memories....................................2
Freda...............................................3
Crow Gossip.........................................4
Hiscar..............................................6
Blink and Miss It...................................7
Post-Birthday Blues.................................8
The Bridge.........................................11
A Mounted Image....................................12
Civil Ears.........................................13
THE REGULARS
Prologue......................................15
This Week: Wormwood...........................16
2. Twin Trumpets..............................17
Remember The Porter...........................18
4. An Empty Chair.............................20
Tissue Preserved -- The Pure Mind.............21
Papa C. ......................................22
Epilogue......................................23
COLD SEED
Fresh Snow.........................................25
Books On Gardening.................................26
Soiled.............................................27
Picking Rocks......................................28
Quitting The Campus................................29
Elevator Etiquette.................................33
On A Section In Alberta............................34
Cold Seed For The Season...........................35
Gadgetry...........................................36
ANOTHER GENERATION
Origins.......................................38
Threshing.....................................39
Propagation...................................40
Reunion.......................................42
PRAIRIE LINES
Fencing............................................44
Work In Progress...................................45
Barbed Lines.......................................46
Kilos Of Burgers...................................47
Snowbird Mother....................................48
Impressions........................................49
The Red Fox At Polar Park..........................50
Chaff..............................................51
NOTES.........................................53 - 62
BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................64
APPENDIX
Is Poetry................................66 - 70
Barbed Lines – 1994 thesis excerpts
PLASTIC MEMORIES
PLASTIC MEMORIES
snowing tonight
and she's looking through
the plastic remembering
the hairdryer
awkward in his hand 5
as he shrunk
plastic over the window
muttering about dinner
pretending she wasn't there
growing to love 10
this prairie land
where supper's dinner
dinner's lunch
brunch and coffee
rival tea 15
time for breakfast?
none tonight
have to work --
write the real
watching over my shoulder 20
the ghosts not content
with barbed lines or crow gossip
seizing the pain
the sting of breaking words
her conviction 25
and mine
the storm windows in place
and snow failing
as it contests for the light
they would be content 30
to live the pain
to feel the sting of chilblain caught
skating on the slough
shoveling the drive
chasing scoops of snow at stray dogs 35
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
FREDA
never write
of hutterite
women less than men
turn to look
with empty eyes 5
penned cattle
indifferent
they steal he said
they're bad she said
they're crows we said 10
caw caw
caw caw
caught
she said
she felt it 15
more than we
her carnal contact
with outsiders
a covert fondness
for the perfume we gave her 20
voraciously reading
views unchecked
a checked scarf
bobbing on
a black dress 25
full of cancer
ruminating like
hope/chest
full of promise
unique 30
as freda
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
CROW GOSSIP
i freed a crow once
penned in a wooden box
i give my word
i don't know what
something made me 5
stop and look over the edge
afraid of the unknown
of course suspecting that it was
domesticated crow
some town kids scattered crumbs 10
placed a frozen moon pie box
tied a kite string to a branch
propped it underneath an edge
the flaps were waving welcomes
and the wind their only guest 15
playing out the string they
shushed and hissed
and lay down in the grass
and waiting is forever when
you're only ten years old 20
when they tired of the box trick
they'd get rod to whitebait gulls
summer after summer went
and came and went and
came and went while they never 25
caught a crow with home-made buns
or lucky spoon
sparrows magpies
gulls galore
so many miles 30
from sea and shore
and then
they grew away from ground
they left the crow
the birds aghast 35
all attempts to loving keep
or insane leers and pointed sticks
to a younger science passed
So when the pie was opened you sang?
A: fc /n /rime 40
check the time?
A: mode fast
A: /n echo off
echo off? [Yes] [No]
A: rem looping 45
i remember this crow
dignity stripped squawk muffled
dull black dress and empty eyes
penned for love or cruel art
i hear crows are squawking loners 50
even in a rookery
lost in the midst of the muddle
penned
or displayed in moon pie crates
quiet 55
still
but my expertise at matters
that concern the wary crow
comes from hearsay
and childhood/ 60
cruelty white with age
hey i don't even own a boat
A: BREAK
through the open flap a
folded useless door 65
the baking sun
swallowed by the eyes like they were glass glinting off
the motionless black
there are times when 70
i think about crows
those times when crows
flap around my door
i hear crows talk
about friendly townspeople 75
-- they tell one other
they ditched the box
outside of town
the crow was gone
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
HISCAR
hiscar
had prairie
at the edge
proud and showing
old beloved 5
a wild red
breaking
running rose
all bubbled up
and filmy white 10
memory scratches
healthy surface
once red painful
brush against
a grizzled red 15
some falling off
the lines you feel
like highway tar
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
BLINK AND MISS IT
driving west
starting to turn
green trash bag in ditch
round soggy bail
hugging the prairie
and notice no end-
gate in the truck
dried white clay
the gophers are out
there's one on that mound
starting to turn
lime-green greens
the golfers are out
there's one on that mound
driving west
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
POST-BIRTHDAY BLUES
a seagull blanket
cleaning yesterdays
that's me over the portable city
a/lone hawk circling 5
above the crowd
above the mud
ten dollar straw bales
the mud fights the rain
where mudballs hang 10
canadian flags
draped out of the mud
soaring fifty feet high
sewing landscape and sky
the red narrow edge 15
to cover the pasture
they bedded some wood
the snow fence that could
some broke up pallets
squatters invading 20
to blanket their claim
communal domain
itinerant city
the second gate searches
where some were barred 25
everything hard
security confiscates
cattle prods lacking
this sets them apart
security's art 30
the wound-up to round-up
herded through gates
like domesticate beasts
securities breached
some testes were fondled 35
timothy trampled
by leather clad foot
its origin moot
like genuine cowhide
some portable toilets 40
that lineups had found
but finding the ground
the brazen ignored them
feasting on cowpies
before we appeared 45
some chased them with beer
the flies had to scatter
a beer cup of plastic
soars over the crowd
no bottles allowed 50
the prairie protected
chocolate stick ice cream
a stand in the muck
the manicured mud
sticking to rev 'lers 55
chicago clad salesman
with two dollar cups
waves ice-cola syrup
dressed up like a bull
a portable turret 60
looks over the ground
for mixing the sound
a tower erected
the headliners helped
by a heavy light crew 65
the biggest named lou
i noticed his nametag
they each had a spotlight
to augment the rays
all trained on the stage 70
mechanically driven
upstaging def leppard
was ugly kid joe
postponing the show
they started a mudfight 75
openers rockhead
to warm april wine
a king for a time
the best was tom cochrane
pieces of plastic 80
and burlap grain sacks
a nylon back-pack
a/lone hawk kept circling
with claws retracted
not tempted to dive 85
from smoking the hive
the living prey buzzing
wrapped up in a blanket
affixed to the stage
it's canada day 90
it's raining it's pouring
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
THE BRIDGE
there is a bridge
on iron creek
they call the bridge the bridge
just the bridge
it's been a site of many crossings
a site of sights the bridge
his mother had to
sew and wash
and iron at the neon wheel
just the wheel
his daddy drank and played at bridge
with creaky hand
and iron appeal
now the only thing a young man knows
is what he has for thoughts
just the bridge
he drove out to the iron bridge
so drunk he couldn't stop
come with me now to wavy lake
and circle marbled ground
just the wheel
a frosty name another bridge
an epitaph unwound
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
A MOUNTED IMAGE
the mystique of mounties includes opera
dudley do right's impression
of nelson eddy
calling you
america's sweetie
jeanette macdonald
upstaged in edmonton
by rocky
underdogs
at bullwinkle's restaurant
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
CIVIL EARS
abandoned house
boasting NO
refuge from
the marking season
venture through 5
a useless door
spine hairs up
pointed invasion
a haphazard bed
with filthy linen 10
old news
war/time
paperback
spine up
marking 15
reader's spot
urine stinging
heavy cloud
makeshift toilet
rise to meld 20
ancestral odours
once full beer
bottle shattered
civil ears
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
THE REGULARS
be bitter to your stomach,
but sweet as honey in your mouth."
Revelation, 10:9
"The smoker you drink
the player you get."
Joe Walsh
"I had thought to have let
in some of all professions
that go the primrose way to
th' everlasting bonfire."
Macbeth: Act 2, Scene 3: 18-19
PROLOGUE
when lambing march
meets april's fool
and drowsy roots
are cruelly primed
when the lazy rain 5
drips pussy willows
shaking leaves
from winter sleep
then papa geof
would go on tour 10
he took me out
carousing beers
said "listen johnny
you got ears"
regulars spend money 15
regulars pay the bills
set your watch --
watch your pocketbooks
DRINKING CAN KILL"watch your tongue" 20
"mind your manners"
"he holes upstairs"
"maintains the tavern"
tasting wares
THIS WEEK: WORMWOOD
open doors 25
packed as hell
scented wood
friday smell
fender speakers 30
move the air
over the ten
two stepping pairs
a song -- highschool
cigarette 35
bar-stool footrail
"yup you bet"
then filmy white
the glasses chink
they tap the time 40
fresh out of sink
the regulars
the marionettes
drinkers dancers cigarettes
2. TWIN TRUMPETS
they plant their feet 45
on musty floors
where white clay sticks
rub foul sores
the cast iron table leg
lofty thought 50
a gentlemen's argument
leading nowhere
one bumps his dregs
on the musty carpet
one mixes red-eye 55
the blood of a dead man
zak repeats
what others say
grinning zeke
nods and nods and/ 60
waves for service
two and a juice
the bartender reads it
REMEMBER THE PORTER
eighty years
liquor years 65
engineer
labourer
clothes of pride
pocket stitch
matching cap 70
lift and itch
haggard face
rails maintained
lukewarm draught
lift and drain 75
"seven o'clock
set your watch"
slow
deliberate
throat vibration 80
weighing words
balancing nations
thin lips
barely move
itchy hair 85
lift and soothe
countless patrons
stimulate
his memories
coagulate 90
the railroad stock
"he 'll liquidate!"
"it's bullshit"
"please elaborate"
"well" (zombie) 95
"rails" (highball)
"the west" (scotch)
"empty pockets" (wine)
"What year was she?" said Geoffrey. After
this I looked at an open door, seven 100
mounted heads, and ten powder horns. A
hodgepodge hungry with western themes:
bucksaws, flintlocks, double t's. Pioneer
tools and disco days. Mirrors of beer.
A neon haze. 105
some cowboy posters
two-piece girls
a horseshoe nailed
to the bathroom door
"the crowded train" (the seven heads) 110
"the rails maintained" (in wired bliss)
no power poles to measure snow
no crow or blackfoot
buffalo...
4. AN EMPTY CHAIR
trapper likes the pickled eggs 115
he salts them well
to stimulate
his appetite
for rum and coke
neat and pressed 120
a dirty joke
his famous tricks
a bowl poured out
a burning ash 125
a match burns twice
he calms the scorched
with a "goddam joke"
"guaranfuckinteed"
the barman evicting 130
an old woman babbling
restfully babbling
to saints and martyrs
in an empty chair
his untamed tongue 135
is a sharp two-edged sword
her scarlet hat
bobs a dark smear
above her penciled brow
gold foil earrings 140
and loops of plastic
pearls and dark glass
jewels reflecting
a purple dress
an empty bottle 145
molson gold
in her marbled hand
"don't worry about babe" papa says to the man
"women are cities
the passion of man" 150
"she'll get more from trapper than she ever gave
mix her a double
whatever she craves"
TISSUE PRESERVED -- THE PURE MIND
his head
and hair 155
were white as white wool
five two breezy blue
his nose round
a misshaped hardball
a thousand eyes front and back 160
penetrating craters
with a wild red glow
no photo available
in his highschool yearbook
--a regular favourite 165
draught beer
the locals' treatment
questionable
"hello"
(no one sits with bill) 170
the lonely crib-board
a permanent fixture
on his table
on the wall above
(the barman condones it) 175
a yellowed cellophane sign
BILLS PLACE (sic)bathing suits
drinking beer 180
PAPA C.
a pilsner beer
as cold as snow
licking the edge
of hand-rolled smokes
emerging from 185
a pouch of gold
he spoke familiar
hockey weather
hard times
a depression family 190
a large family
on relief
the father in jail
avoiding argument
voraciously reading 195
always in agreement
"yup yur right
on that one boy
yup yup yup
i believe ya" 200
if drunk enough
he'd bark some service
a wired rambling
from there to mcGee
his arm outstretched 205
like a bronze orator
a round of applause
and three free "pils"
a rousing toast to sinclair ross
one story building 210
then another
the crowd seeking
a way away
in his last months
he quit carousing 215
and started spooning
bowls full of the wrath of god
wild stubble
and a white face
cloth burned white hot 220
wrapped around his cold frame
his hour of trial
had come like a thief
no service
no poetry 225
EPILOGUE
weak worms
open doors
trumpet sounds
open doors
knock knock knock! 230
opens doors
an empty chair
is an open door
the pure mind
opens doors 235
a papa c.
opens doors
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
"The seed of truth lies hidden deep within."
Boethius
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
FRESH SNOW
miss dark land
winter white
and picot blue
of just
white ice 5
just ice and white
white and stone
chthonic demons
insane leers
stone temple pilates 10
mist the poetry
in a lispering land
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
BOOKS ON GARDENING
our past is soil
under the fingernails
too close
too personal
to be scrutinized 5
when the earth invades a crevice
it's de-filed
A:s - dirt dirty shitty
yet
entire libraries 10
venerate compost
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
SOILED
black rot
organicallyrich
soil from deaths
we don't recognize
the found feast 5
the dust eaten
and eaten and eaten
until the soil
spits the dust to life
that moves the soil 10
and eats dust from the soil
eating the black rot
organicallyrich
soil from deaths
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
PICKING ROCKS
stone pile periods
rolled away
from seed starved soil
risen up
from winterheaves
empty tomb
unearthing
like teeth emerging
from swollen gums
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
QUITTING THE CAMPUS
workers busy
loading truck
cigarettes
etc truck
ground leaves 5
speckled reddish-brown
invaders cautious
unknown ground
sound on
headphones 10
bounce along
carry a parka
overhearing
foreign students
gold spades 15
whispering off
a poplar
painted door
open held
a prominent white 20
one story building
an armload
of deliveries
crown wrapped
in vinegar and 25
brown paper
breeze on
lawn sprinkles
metronomic pattern
(everyone glancing at it) 30
scattering mist
darkening soil
and cold seed
ants conquer
bread crumbs marching out of 35
lunch bag over old newspaper
beside empty trashy barrel
and shattered brown bottle
spongy grass
a concrete hairpiece 40
adjunct to a cobblestone
carpet of geometric siblings
slowly walking
two men in suits
a casual pace 45
facilitates words
our jackets alike
except for name bars
none exceeding
letters five 50
a warm face tory
building emerging
through mountain
ash orange berries
boldly displayed 55
mind full of birds
shy hiding birds
conversing in melodies
fed by
plump sentinels 60
saying hi
nodding too
a/lone runners
team jackets
pseudonymous fate 65
a cloud resembling
drifting harmlessly
through breezy blue
calling a huddle
of students 70
haphazardly drilling
through double door
fumbling the past
through future zone
a football 75
playfully tossed
between two
young men
busy hands
t-shirts 80
sweat pants
fans cheer
standing by
open books
standing by 85
hands red
faces live
a loper
jogging earnestly
toward my 90
destination
shouting nick nick
at a measured pace
shrugging shoulders and
stuttered stop like 95
the sound had moved
in motion slow
hands mesmerized
a couple held
a perfect spot 100
in the face of other
a man dozing
dry lawn
out of sprinklers reach
his head rest 105
a canvas pack
a blue jays cap
pulled down
a beautiful tableau
an arm of bronze outstretched 110
do you remember quitting?
and the smell of cigarettes
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
ELEVATOR ETIQUETTE
randy watches
the numbers
monotonous calculations
continually determining
his proximity 5
hearing the squeak and groan
of the cabled car
going down
admiring his leather shoes
his blinders up 10
he peeks through
and notices her
admiring the floor
he catches her
peeking back 15
b bbblushing
we're all wary
cautious
trapped in a moving room
where were you when the lights went out? 20
lately i've become a menace
ignoring elevator rules
a stark second
before my floor
when the bell tolls 25
for my numbered floor
i insist on conversation
breaking spells
of shoes and floors
"this car was built by maxwell house" 30
i dryly add
while stepping off then
pause and turn
on closing door
grinning "good to the last drop" 35
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
ON A SECTION IN ALBERTA
the evanescent vision landscapes living crowd
stubble on a white face cloth
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
A portable sign beside a greenhouse had its letters blown by the wind. Driving by, I misread "closed for the season" as...
COLD SEED FOR THE SEASON
a
sea
see
see the sea
cold for the sea 5
old sea
o see
old seed
old seed for the seas
cold season 10
cold for the seas
cold for the season
cold seed for the season
old as
seed for the son 15
old
cold seed for the son
see the son
cold
the son 20
season
cold
seed for the sea
for the se
cold seas 25
on
the
son
on
the 30
d e d
s on
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
time
time to
time to ponder
time to ponder things
time to ponder things that
time to ponder things that don't
time to ponder things that don't have
time to ponder things that don't have to
time to ponder things that don't have to rely
time to ponder things that don't have to rely on
GADGETRY
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
----*----*----*----*----*----*--------*----*----*----*----*----*----
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
ANOTHER GENERATION
"For I am bound with fleshly bands,
Joy, beauty, lie beyond my scope;
I strain my heart, I stretch my hands,
And catch at hope."
Christina Rossetti
ORIGINS
brian thought
the narrator
might envision
friendly townspeople as
poles connecting 5
lines that communicate
from generation to
community members
distant as
clarke's belt 10
visible in heaven
a dam
stretched over
the ditches wound 15
in ground beside
barbed wire
inhibiting stumbling
onto roads for gravelly
old homesteaders 20
or sons of mothers
children to someday pave
distance in derived horse
power driving shafts
direct from distant steel 25
mills surrounding
cities of immigrants
fed white
meat from water
stretched from horizon to horizon 30
meat rivaling your north saskatchewan slough shark
trophy sized bass or
salmon coloured cousins
mythical pioneers
instinctively avoiding 35
old brians
pike infested frontier
THRESHING
if he could write
his self he would
fashion his paper brain 40
knowing that
they thrive
alive multiplied
like loaves
of wheat 45
bleached white
refined in part
by defining the whole
sparing no
expansive landscape 50
redefined from horizon to horizon
PROPAGATION
while dad was an awkward youth
insulating foreign doors
against frozen hordes
advancing like pikesmen 55
clattering armour
over a paved yard
exercising his right
to painlessly live
his glorious manhood 60
to manifest
in me
and repeat
a seed
sown in alberta 65
repeat
a name
cloned and kept
sprouted in saskatchewan
oblivious to mitchell 70
fashioning paper
brians on the prairie
housed in
short green trousers
divining honing wind 75
and a dead gopher
bleached white
oblivious to relief feeding mother's
fatherless family in alberta
oblivious to his father 80
swallowing moose jaw soil
perverting history
moving east
for a green homestead
near ontario's mitchell 85
feeling the wind
that blew
defenseless black
gophers forced
to dig in 90
dried white clay
sticking to everything
left over
after the first/great
lesson of the century 95
that spawned us
REUNION
my son talks
to him
on line
too soon buried 100
with rotted poles and empty cross shadows
that disappear under
trenched landscape
glossy blacks whites reds
neutrals all 105
green/ground
lines surrounded
with plastic efforts
at preservation
obsolesced by 110
stark fibre/
optic awareness
somewhat super/
seeded by seldom seen voices
sibilating the heavens 115
microwaveable sense/
ability to come/
union
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
PRAIRIE LINES
"We give form to this land by running
a series of posts and three strands
of barbed wire around a quarter-section."
Robert Kroetsch
"Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out."
Robert Frost
FENCING
"Something there is that doesn't love a wall."
Robert Frost
there is no fence
to stop nature
there is snow fence
to humour nature
to humour nature
there is snow fence
to stop nature
there is no fence
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
WORK IN PROGRESS
-----*----
a landscape traced
with dotted line
an interlined scribbler
priming beginners
-*-----*--
the bar line posts 5
separate rhythm
scrambling words
breaking measure
--*-----*-- ---*--
horizontal lines
support clinging vines 10
and vertical twigs --
budding infants
springing green
from no
till ground 15
--*-----*----*-----*--
a trinity of post and lintel
nailed with bale wire
the branches support the
matchless rambling
-- volunteer oats 20
and wild lentils
* --*-----*-- --*-----*--
seeking meaning
outside the line
wired natures
rambling heiroglyph 25
* * * * * *
a crayon dressed
in summer green
or autumn red
obscuring the line
with collage of colour 30
-- natures rhyme
7
the obscure branches
changing lines --
a living page
fenced in meaning 35
-- leaves dropping
an altered page
growing
growing
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
BARBED LINES
"God knows, too many fences fence us out."
Phyllis Webb
lines that tear trousers
barbed lines
support the sting of breaking rose
at a haven for wild oats
and volunteer rape
a back road heaven
separating wheat and tears
wild seed and chaff
|| ||
|| ||
*-----*-----*-||--*-----*-----*-----*-----*--||-*-----*-
|| ||
--*-----*-----||----*-----*-----*-----*-----*||-----*--- || ||
-----*-----*--||-*-----*-----*-----*-----*---||--*-----* || ||
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
KILOS OF BURGERS
kilos of triple strand barb
strung three high
are food containers
keeping day
grazing domesticates
protected from self mutilation
and auto traffic
sparse enough to condition
the hamburger in (colourized) infancy
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
SNOWBIRD MOTHER
when she was young
she used to laugh
listening to leaves fall
she laughed
she didn't leave
she never laughed last labour day
she left
for florida
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
IMPRESSIONS
viewed through
three layers of glass
dusty gravel
enhances the impression
a natural joshua 5
taking on remembering
flanking the barb
a snow fence built
to parallel
the zigzag hills 10
rough hewn spruce
one by eight
whitewash lacking
vertical soldiers
touching shoulders 15
modeled after
the pioneer and
alberta pool
engineered in railroad towns
inherited from garrisons 20
on a dear frontier
fashioned from untold years
of flat cars
fresh cut spruce
coming crisp 25
from the coast
with mountain air
some assembly required
pole shed remnants?
dugout protection? 30
closing in on the soldiers
imagining the knotty surface
of rough spruce
wooden divisions
transform 35
to floppy eared stillness
a herd of muleys
in file formation
a parade floating
in stasis 40
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
THE RED FOX AT POLAR PARK
pace and pace
pause and turn
sometimes bred
fed white meat
dead to eat
dead to eat
fed white meat
bred sometimes
pause and turn
pace and pace
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
CHAFF
swaths line
a living page
grainy and knowing
when threshing
grains of poetry
some useful
chaff remains
----*----*----*----*----*----*--------*----*----*----*----*----*--------*----*----*----*----*----*--------*----*----*----*----*----*--------*----*----*----*----*----*--------*----*----*----*----*----*--------*----*----*----*----*----*--------*----*----*----*----*----*----
Is Poetry
Reggie Hart
Pound haunts me
the aphoristic nature of a phrase
unnecessary or excessive?
Or was he thinking etymology < L. super, above + fluere, to flow: "Use no superfluous word...."
absolutely nevermore
intentionally use
exacerbated cacophony
Words modulate between simple description and divine afflatus
reformed into something new.
Examine the possibilities -- a clandestine meeting on a back road.
a farmer introduced it
now it's everywhere
read in
Barbed Lines
there are many emotions combating for dominance; pain, lust, suffering, anger, resentment...
This is an attempt to capture.
Develop a taste for concrete deer with embedded antlers Then! Moulting lasts a thousand years.
The last two lines intermingle
disparate-fuse-image
The last word forms the glue to bind the
image. Sometimes
the fifth point on a compass
is the point where
"In music. Crow is realist. But, then,"
word unit
Move beyond the image. Imagine little condolement comes from the few
words
excessive above
or on the flow of a poetic line
below
That words have power, is of course evide nt However, contact here is ach ieved
Year after year rocksriseup; picked before
seed can be sown.
That the reader will associate these words in a like manner.
Some writers aspire to control words, a noble aspiration, but one which ultimately
The Difference Between Us and Them
r is x r is x r is x r is x r is x r is x r is x
yes one might
read "us and them" as
<M> <F>
but this poem
"R is x" is curiously mathematical. This heightens the irony, since neither "r" nor "x" have any irreducible meaning, except that empowered by the reader. Letters -- and subsequently words -- have no absolute meaning. But tone
Consider the realm beyond the page. The
JEOPARDY
rite of passage
married beard
son and father
buried here
Who was Jacob Hutter?
a chicken boss
or hay or straw
a businessman
biblical law
Who was Jacob Hutter?
What will the reader think when confronted with
this particular combination?
dear
bp nichol
love
A.B.O.R.
PS (8564 I16 L89 1974)
; an acknowledgement that language is inadequate.
Any combination of letters at once becomes a structure. Poetry moves beyond. Forms like free verse or haiku. Inasmuch as all these hopefully. That said, I'd like to add that this does not mean that one should.
Consider:
IS
SI
steer:
Some Brerow Philosophy
IS
SI
yes
it begs for seed
The precarious balance of agreement
As we read and reread
PO--- is all/ways altered
it could be argued
inherently
Mitchell forever fashioning paper Brians over and over again
MS-DOS TRANSLATION
fc /n test1.src test2.src Scratch my fuckin' balls
>test3.src all three of you
fc \user\working\file.txt Fuck you Sir and your job
\user \backup\file.txt You Serback, Up filet zit!
"In some
haunting way
the Ben
[is] part
of it."
Any discussion will
And here is the key word.
This leads to the unlikely conclusion that perhaps
It is therefore desirable to
The shape of these words in a line on a page.
"IF YOU WANT THE GIST OF THE MATTER..."
in sane voice
change pain to glory
mumbling over wine and bread
in sane others
watch wicked thought
cast down to hell
infect others
with insane order
insane voice
with wild rambling
St. Sufferingholdinglongingmergingmitchellpoundand
letters have tone
Pound knew
----*----*----*----*----*----*----
Barbed Lines - Footnotes
2. Plastic Memories
watching over my shoulder
the ghosts not content (l.20-1)
Cf. Wallace Stevens, "Large Red Man Reading:" "There were ghosts that returned to earth to hear his phrases" (320).
3. Freda
women less than men (l. 3)
The Hutterian Brethren consider the male to be the head of the household. Cf. Ephesians, 5:22-4.
hope/chest (l. 28)
Freda is unattached.
4. Crow Gossip
A: fc /n /rime (l. 40)
Here a dialogue occurs between the poet and his computer. He directs the computer to check the files for rhyming words. But because the poet has used the archaic spelling -- "rime" the computer offers its closest possibility to the word,
i. e. "time."
A: rem looping (l. 45)
-- rem: "remarks." Also, R.E.M. (rapid eye movement) is associated with the dream state.
8. Post-Birthday Blues
The outdoor rock concert described here occurred July 1,1993 near Camrose, Alberta.
9.
dressed up like a bull (l. 59)
-- the Chicago Bulls.
10.
upstaging def leppard (l. 72)
Def Leppard headlined the concert. The other acts were Rockhead, Ugly Kid Joe, Tom Cochrane and April Wine.
13. Civil Ears
heavy cloud (l. 18)
Adapted from Wallace Stevens: "Like Decorations in a Nigger Cemetery." "The cloud rose upward like a heavy stone" (103).
14. THE REGULARS
Every tavern I ever visited had one or more interesting characters. Some elusive, many friendly, these characters always fascinated me. Those appearing in this poem are composites based on real people; some still living. Papa Geoff combines Chaucer with the first angel in Revelation and authentic tavern patrons. Many of the events, such as Papa’s recitation of "The Cremation of Sam McGee" are based on actual occurrences. The dreamer shifts in and out of an imaginary tour of the pubs that Chaucer's troupe visited on their way to Canterbury, the heavenly scene depicted in Revelation, and Alberta taverns. He encounters a character who reminds him of the Porter in Macbeth, a biblical harlot, zeke and zak, trapper, and a host of patrons all demanding a voice.
15. Prologue
modeled after the prologue to The Canterbury Tales.
are cruelly primed (l. 4)
Cf. T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land: "April is the cruelest month" (63).
15.
said "listen johnny
you got ears" (ll. 13-4)
Cf. "I John am he who heard and saw these things." (Revelation 22:8).
DRINKING CAN KILL (l. 19)
Alberta Liquor Control Board sign on the wall.
tasting wares (l. 24)
Cf. Simple Simon.
16. This Week: Wormwood
Cf. title:
The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died of the water, because it was made bitter. (Revelation 8:11)
scented wood (l. 27)
Cf. Revelation 18:11.
17. 2. Twin Trumpets
rub foul sores (l. 48)
So the first angel went and poured his bowl on the earth, and foul and evil sores came upon the men who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.
(Revelation 16:2)
the blood of a dead man (l. 56)
The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a dead man, and every living thing died that was in the sea.
(Revelation 16:3)
18. Remember The Porter
-- title: "I pray you, remember the porter." (Macbeth Act 2 Scene 3: 21)
18.
After this I looked at an open door... (l. 99-100)
"After this I looked, and lo, in heaven an open door..." (Revelation 4:1).
20. 4. An Empty Chair
a bowl poured out (l. 124)
"The fourth angel poured his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch men with fire" (Revelation 16:8).
an old woman babbling (l. 131)
Cf. the harlot in Revelation:
The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and bedecked with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication; and on her forehead was written a name of mystery: `Babylon the great, mother of harlot's and earth's abominations.' And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
(17:4-6)
"don't worry about babe..." (148)
Cf. Revelation 17:4-6 (see above note).
mix her a double (l. 152)
Render to her as she herself has rendered, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double draught for her in the cup she mixed. (Revelation 18:6)
21. Tissue Preserved -- The Pure Mind
-- the title is a line taken from Ezra Pound's "`Sienna Mi Fe'; Disfecemi Maremma'" in Hugh Selwyn Mauberley. The poem features the character M. Verog discussing poets who frequented the pubs in London.
21.
his head
and hair
were white as white wool (ll. 154-6)
"His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire..." (Revelation 1:14).
22. Papa C.
on relief (l. 192)
During the depression many Alberta families were on welfare -- on relief.
from there to mcGee (l. 204)
Cf. Robert W. Service: "The Cremation of Sam McGee."
his arm outstretched
like a bronze orator (ll. 205-6)
(Cf. "Quitting The Campus" n, ll. 109-10).
one story building (l. 210)
(Cf. "Quitting The Campus," n, l. 18)
bowls full of the wrath of god (l. 217)
Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, `Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.' (Revelation 16:1)
had come like a thief (l. 223)
"...I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you" (Revelation 3:3).
-- cf. Luke 12:39, II Peter 3:10.
23. Epilogue
trumpet sounds (l. 228)
Cf. ...And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, `Come up hither, and I will show you what must take place after this.'
(Revelation 4:1)
23.
knock knock knock! (l. 230)
Spoken by the Porter in Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 3: (12-13).
25. Fresh Snow
insane leers (l. 9)
-- King Lear.
stone temple pilates (l. 10)
In the mystery plays, Pilate's words are bold and often exaggerated. The stones that peek through the snow are like Pilate's voice.Homonym: Stone Temple Pilots is a contemporary rock band.
26. Books on Gardening
a:s - dirt dirty shitty (l. 8)
-- a data search for the etymology of dirt.
28. Picking Rocks
stone pile periods (l. 1)
-- Punctuation has become redundant; historians tend to compartmentalize the past into "periods."
29. Quitting The Campus
painted door (l. 18)
Cf. Sinclair Ross: "The Painted Door."
crown wrapped (l. 24)
Crown-Zellerback is a paper manufacturer.
30.
a warm face tory (l. 51)
-- the Tory Building on the University of Alberta campus.
30.
plump sentinels (l. 60)
-- the berries, but also the warm faced tory.
31.
fumbling the past
through future zone (ll. 73-4)
Adapted from Wallace Stevens, "Like Decorations in a Nigger Cemetery." "If ever the search for a tranquil belief should end, / The future might stop emerging out of the past" (103).
32.
a beautiful tableau
an arm of bronze outstretched (ll. 109-10)
-- Cf. Wallace Stevens, "The Dance of the Macabre Mice:" "What a beautiful tableau tinted and towering / The arm of bronze outstretched against all evil" (117).
33. Elevator Etiquette
where were you when the lights went out? (l. 20)
-- title of a Metro Goldwyn Mayer movie; based on the 1965 blackout in New York: starring Doris Day.
34. On A Section in Alberta
-- Cf. Ezra Pound, "In a Station of the Metro."
35. Cold Seed For The Season
for the se (l. 24)
-- for these.
38. Origins
Brian thought (l. 1)
-- a character in W.O. Mitchell's Who Has Seen The Wind.
poles connecting (l. 5)
The swarming hum of telephone wires came to him, barely perceptible in the stillness, hardly a sound heard so much as a pulsing of power felt. He looked up at rime-white wires, following them from pole to pole to the prairie's rim. From each person stretched back a long line -- hundreds and hundreds of years -- each person stuck up. (Mitchell, 299)
38.
clarke's belt (l. 11)
-- the "C" band communication satellites named for Arthur C. Clarke.
a dam (l. 12)
-- Adam.
...north saskatchewan... (l. 31)
-- the river, not the province.
...slough shark (l. 31)
-- slang for Northern Pike.
40. Propagation
...relief feeding mother's (l. 78)
(Cf. Papa C. n, l. 192)
ontario's mitchell (l. 85)
Mitchell is a town in Ontario.
41.
first/great (l. 95)
-- WWI / The Great War.
42. Reunion
on line (l.99)
-- computer command.
44. Fencing
(see below note: "The Red Fox at Polar Park.")
45. Work in Progress
from no
till ground (ll. 14-5)
No-till farming is a technique presently being employed by some Alberta farmers.
46. Barbed Lines
separating wheat and tears
Homonym: the Biblical "tares" -- an unwanted weed.
47. Kilos of Burgers
...(colourized)... (l. 9)
-- some grocery stores colour the meat on display.
50. The Red Fox At Polar Park
Michael Ondaatje's reverse footage segments in The Collected Works of Billy The Kid have used this same technique. However, my intention is not one of a camera but an imitation of the movement of the trapped fox. In "Fencing" the image reverses on itself but here the sense is one of heightened pathos. The snow fence becomes a "humour" on the body of nature.
51. Chaff
chaff remains (l. 7)
Cf. -- the Imagist principle "use no superfluous words." In any editorial task it is difficult to decide which words remain.
Various Snippets of Poems
Waiting For the Next Direction
swollen remains usher proven beat
save molten rhyme a dying alone luxury
by Reggie Hart
------------------------------------------------
calm down
for the sake of the children
change your nature
and lose the cruel rules for tomorrow
------------------------------------------------
As We Caress Your Edges
we should
stroke you
like yesterday
and stay awake
dreaming of you
----------------
The Final Period
tow your duds
home to a frosty porch
hand-me-down toboggans
nicked pucks and wall street shin pads
fire your toque and mismatched mitts
score one on the rickety boot bin
knock the supper scraps
out of sparky's bowl
hear the tea-kettle pitching
let mom fill the tub
wiggle into starchy pyjamas
toast chokecherry syrup
and sugary hot chocolate
do anything you must
to catch the final period.
by Reggie Hart
-----------------------------------------
A Berth in the Minor Cup
bury it
bury it
bury it hard
find a hole
and shove it in
we gotta score
between the pipes
a sprawling mass of pads and gloves
ok call it hooking
let's make them pay
don't blow it for nothing
going upstairs
dig dig
dig it out
we gotta steal one
tie her up
poke it in
ram it in
in the crease
drill one nail one
hammer it home
shoot shoot shoot it now
he's in the box
they're beating themselves
kill it kill it
take your time
pass it around
and run it down
he's crossing the line
a shot from the point
it's in/it's out
slip it in
slap her out
--------------------------------------------