Nichol - Martyrology, Book 7

What I have written has no plan, or at least is not planned. If it has a shape it is chiefly that it returns to its beginning. It has themes and a theme even if it wanders far. If it has a unity it is that what goes before conditions what comes after and vice versa from The Anathemata by David Jones If we dont garden the tongue, theyll blacktop it over. Gerry Gilbert, in a letter And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. giftsgiven

The Martyrology Book(s) 7 & consisting of ASSUMPTIONS (A Counting Bk VII1984 to 1988) ST. giftsgivenThe Martyrology Book(s) 7 & consisting of ASSUMPTIONS (A Counting Bk VII1984 to 1988) ST.

ANZAS: basis/bases (The Martyrology Bk (10)81985 to 1988) MONOTONES (1967 to 1972) SCRAPTURES (1965 to 1972) etc. et al copyright Ellie Nichol, 1990,2003 Second edition This epub edition pubished in 2010. Electronic ISBN 978 1 77056 073 4. The quotation on the back cover is from bpNichoFs Narrative in Language: The Long Poem, first published in The Dinosaur Review, then reprinted in Tracing the Paths, edited by Roy Miki (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1988). Thanks to Nicky Drumbolis, Lola Tostevin and Ellie Nichol. - I.N.

Published with the assistance of the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Nichol, B. P., 19441988 Gifts : the martyrology book(s) 7 & / b.p. Nichol. - 2nd ed. Poems. Title. II. II.

Title: Martyrology book(s) 7 &. PS8527.I32G55 2003 C81 T.54 C00-9302050 PR9199.3.N48G42003 To go beyond THE WORD,
exercise control over it? no
NO NO BEYOND THE
WORD, not to merely control
it but to overcome it, go be
yond the point where it is
even necessary to think in
terms of it Journal note
Vancouver
April 7, 1964
2:15a.m. for ellie
outside these books
that life

June 12, 1988 (after diagrams by Stephen Hawking) For Birk Sproxton & Dennis Johnson July 2nd at Sylvan Lake sun going down old hotel behind me not a memory of but the recollection my parents dancing here 1933 their honeymoon Uncle Earl playing in the orchestra what song? what tune? what music drifts across the water all water years the self-conscious act of memory re-membering a life, love, the i is born out of passion songs play are replayed the dance goes on goes on fam-ily fami-ly fam-ily fami-ly fam-i-ly -i-ly -i -i July 3rd under the gray stairs beside the white grocery store the body of the cat stiff now death having taken it where? looking round up & down Oliver road tears streaming down my cheeks 1954 heaven? July 4th notes struck over & over again chords that stack up play on something in you resemblances/rhythms rhymes it takes a life time to hear heard July 4th this blue that vocabulary word choice or obsession i.e. no choice at all driven &/or dictated this: present & therefore to be accounted for. blue: all around you (sky sea the robins egg you found aged 3). assumptions masking as givens the way belief sits outside the rational the way the senses ration the world let only so much in so much let in letting irrational July 4th hi story hi world hi bee leaf hell o honey is the stinger in the vision of paradise sin tax of a life a is for apple b is for ball it all comes down it all comes down to this July 5th (song) moonin around coz i aint with my honey blue coz i isnt with you cats got my tongue makes me talk funny when heaven aint happenin hell has to do July 5th (rewriting an old poem from memory) 1934 my sister donna died at my mothers breast three months old 1955 i found her shoes in a box no bigger than my palm July 5th things remembered or recalled the way that old song refuses to leave the mind alone conversations with gone friends how it seemed you would all go on foreverie /frag/mented/memory of / beginnings stories of the world before you came to be we are all somebodys dead baby eventually July 6th struck/sure the search for absolutes in a world of flux where are we lead when we follow their lead what i read is read, dear only the pronunciation changes not even moving your lips pucker sucker its the kiss of life of death ellipsis in which a little knowledge grows and whats proposed? a garden? mind? it aint the thot changes, the spells the same, its the attack rearranges the tone rows, the strings i signs i signifies i sings July 6th tone not tune nut worm row burrow or rub mmmmm hmmmmm mirror rim !AHA! July 7th reeding get this mouth piece to work adjust right? clear a net to catch the world in string sections rhythm pi (an os solution) what it is, you say words where the worlds dwell use hey is what determines meaning hi (notes) lo (notes) bi furcation its my bag, pipes pal in drone you read the music so you can play how still my heart how high the moon July 8th at sylvan lake certain things begin or it is another arbitrary point from which a line gets drawn story has its start its impulse to unravel the moon rises a baby cries outside the window a cat prowls by & an orchestra plays honey on the moon tonight sometimes you think you see it all in the mirror rim but then the lights dim or your eyes fool you the lights blue & its hard to read the signs flash on & off would you like to go dancing from memory take a chance & go romancing i think id rather stay home & read, dear. assumptions masking as givens the way belief sits outside the rational the way the senses ration the world let only so much in so much let in letting irrational July 4th hi story hi world hi bee leaf hell o honey is the stinger in the vision of paradise sin tax of a life a is for apple b is for ball it all comes down it all comes down to this July 5th (song) moonin around coz i aint with my honey blue coz i isnt with you cats got my tongue makes me talk funny when heaven aint happenin hell has to do July 5th (rewriting an old poem from memory) 1934 my sister donna died at my mothers breast three months old 1955 i found her shoes in a box no bigger than my palm July 5th things remembered or recalled the way that old song refuses to leave the mind alone conversations with gone friends how it seemed you would all go on foreverie /frag/mented/memory of / beginnings stories of the world before you came to be we are all somebodys dead baby eventually July 6th struck/sure the search for absolutes in a world of flux where are we lead when we follow their lead what i read is read, dear only the pronunciation changes not even moving your lips pucker sucker its the kiss of life of death ellipsis in which a little knowledge grows and whats proposed? a garden? mind? it aint the thot changes, the spells the same, its the attack rearranges the tone rows, the strings i signs i signifies i sings July 6th tone not tune nut worm row burrow or rub mmmmm hmmmmm mirror rim !AHA! July 7th reeding get this mouth piece to work adjust right? clear a net to catch the world in string sections rhythm pi (an os solution) what it is, you say words where the worlds dwell use hey is what determines meaning hi (notes) lo (notes) bi furcation its my bag, pipes pal in drone you read the music so you can play how still my heart how high the moon July 8th at sylvan lake certain things begin or it is another arbitrary point from which a line gets drawn story has its start its impulse to unravel the moon rises a baby cries outside the window a cat prowls by & an orchestra plays honey on the moon tonight sometimes you think you see it all in the mirror rim but then the lights dim or your eyes fool you the lights blue & its hard to read the signs flash on & off would you like to go dancing from memory take a chance & go romancing i think id rather stay home & read, dear.Next page