a poetic portrait uv bill bissett

There is something about the new tribute to the Canadian poet and painter bill bissett that makes me realize, yet again, just how much he has actually accomplished over the forty-plus years of his career, and just how little acknowledgment he seems to have received for it. An attempt was made a few years ago as a special issue of The Capilano Review on bill and his work; much more comprehensive as tribute to bissett is the new anthology radiant dance uv being: a poetic portrait of bill bissett (Madeira Park BC: Nightwood Editions / blewointment, 2006). Entirely appropriate that the editors, Jeff Pew and Stephen Roxborough, would have the collection come out with the renewed blewointment line published by Nightwood Editions, since the original blewointment, edited, published and founded by bissett, was sold in the 1980s and became what is now Nightwood; long and continued cudos to Silas White for ressurecting the imprint, with collections already published by Toronto poet Jay MillAr and former Ottawa resident currently on the east coast, Matthew Holmes, among others, continuing the tradition of publishing invigorating collections of new poetry in Canada.

As the editors write in their "Prelude: Projekt bill Genesis" (the original call for submission circulated through cyberspace on December 15, 2003):

dere frenz uv bill bissett,

We had a poetic idea. It was endorsed by lunarians. Now we ask for your earthly participation.

The Idea: We noticed each time we talked to bill bissett we learned something about ourselves. We listened to him and he inspired us to write. Sometimes we wrote
poems about him. We imagined he must have the same effect on other poets. We
thought, why not collect poems about bill from his friends and fellow poets? We
believe a range of insightful voices speaking about bill will create an
intoxicating kaleidoscopic reflection-portrait almost as interesting and
multi-faced as bill.

The Endorsement: We presented the idea to bill for his blessing and this is what he wrote: "yr idea is brilliant love it fine totalee dont know tho if thers enuf around abt my work or me 2 make a book wud b way fun tho thanks a lot 4 yr brillyans raging happee trails mor as it cums in much love totalee n rockin love yu bill"

The Collection: We know bill is modest. Certainly we're not alone thinking he's inspired hundreds of electric/eclectic poems from friends all over the continent, if not galaxies beyond. We welcome you to send us your poem(s) about bill for consolidation in this meaningful anthology. And, we encourage you to forward this email to as many friends of bill you think might want to write and submit a poem. We are looking for poems by poets, painters, songwriters, dancers, actors, waitresses, gas jockeys, bus drivers, movie house doormen…anyone who knows and loves and is inspired by bill.

Many xcellent and raging thanks!

For those who might not be aware of bill, he is a complete and raging Canadian poetry presence, producing writing, readings and artwork since the late 1950s (when he got a singing endorsement by Jack Kerouac, famously praising bill and his work in an interview in The Paris Review), and publishing books since the early 1960s. For about as long as I've been alive (about thirty-six years or so, so far), bill has even had a book appearing with Vancouver's Talonbooks every eighteen months, without fail, which probably makes him the most productive, resourceful and imaginative presences in Canadian writing with some the least work done on his art. The most important fact about bill's work, for the uninitiated, is not only the phoenetic spelling that makes up the largest amount of his textual work, but the sheer force of his life performances, which have the power to turn any critic or cynic into an automatic fan. What makes the true measure of the collection is the range of contributors included, from some of the expected sources of bill influence, such as Joe Rosenblatt, Kemeny Babineau, Ross Priddle, jwcurry, Sharon H. Nelson, Jay MillAr, Karl Jirgens, Judith Copithorne, Mari-Lou Rowley, Darren Wershler-Henry and Adeena Karasick to some less expected names, such as Patrick Friesen, Lorna Crozier, Leonard Cohen, Margaret Atwood, P.K. Page and Margaret Avison.

As Vancouver poet Maxine Gadd writes in her poem "bill is a book someone will do someday but":

Th bill pomes
i don’t know how to do
the bill poems all
pomes are to Sweet William
billy boy and billy-wielding mom or dad and the dead who demanded
that in spite of impending whatever
poems
will
be done
oh old ballads, o
o
o
()
the Willy that wends through all our wanton ones
the true blue Bill that mans the white sails over oceans, lost, longed for, laughed with
the sails of the will
wanting
will
the bill that stands on a bird, the bill that comes and must
be paid out like the rope of the sails
the old singing ocean
our goddess
our origin
the will to keep listening, talking, reading reeeling, riting old hippy hopes of a new anti authority anxiiiious hoping to find a way to keep on living, laughing, leading us all into poetry
prole ole leaves and tatters (p 61)

Another element is a series of small notes, reminiscences and other writings by various of the contributors at the end of the collection, including one of my favourite stories of the old blewointment days of bill bissett, as told by (again) Maxine Gadd, of her near resistance to sending work out into the world to get published, thwarted by crafty poet/publisher bill:

Maxine Gadd – Would be glad to remind bill of the time he visited and grabbed a bunch of pages. I was sick with something devastating and couldn’t chase him. He soon after published a book he titled hochelaga after some history I'd been reading. I still like the book and bill. Isn't it good to have ratched spelling, like when you lose the drift to get the desired stream? (p 153)

[bill bissett reads in Ottawa as part of the premier event of the newly-designed Factory Reading Series at the Ottawa Art Gallery on Thursday, June 8th at 7pm; other readers include Leanne Averbach (Vancouver BC), Margaret Christakos (Toronto ON) and Max Middle (Ottawa ON); see my note here on the last time bissett read in Ottawa]