nothing adds up: bill bissett

 
nothing adds up

i dont know

nothing adds up
i look at my watr bottul
n feel reassurd
breeflee

but nothing adds up

i look at my frends
n feel veree reassurd
but nothing adds up

my hed is strange
my hed is strange
it feels full uv puffee
stuff  it feels puffee

nd nothing adds up

at leest i have a benefaktoro
n thats xcellent rent wise fr sure
but nothin adds up  ium just saying
nothing reelee adds up

they told me ium
dewimg reelee well
but not 2 leev town

nothing adds up
nothing adds up

life is sew wundrful
thers almost alwayze
an obstakul 

that alone nevr fails 2
disapoint  it dusint add
up

sum people can try 2 kill yu
whil loving yu  n th suffring
goez on

that dusint add up

flowrs made uv numbrs
hours made uv lettus
n dahlias n lettrs flirt
ing with each othr  in th
gardn uv love and sand

it dusint add up

sum rel can pound an
ohr rels hed in th kitchn
floor  until her brains squish
worms running tord th sink
while hes skreemin at her

how duz that compewt

or th big countree surprisd at
th othr countree 4 remembring
it had bin illegalee invadid
n a millyun uv its peopul killd

thats hard 2 figur

yu cant always live in yr mind
but wher els can yu live  it
dusint add up  thats all ium
saying  1 is 2  n 2 is 1

we need anothr stanza  but ths
is not it   it dusint add up   i
feel like ium drifting  drifting
n why wud aneething add up

did yu think it wud

what

add up
 

               ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ed Baker has left a new comment on your post "nothing adds up: bill bissett":

I onlee coughed one spellin k error:
isnnwt it "wunnherful" ?

nsmocop course



Posted by Ed Baker to Riffs & Ripples from ZenRiver Gardens at 25 October 2014 12:44

PurdyFests Moving on from Marmora

The following article was published in Quinte Arts Council's tabloid Umbrella
Winter 2014/15, Volume 24, Number 4, page 24

 

PurdyFests Moving On From Marmora
by Chris Faiers

 
After eight rollicking years of poetry and discussion, annual Purdy Country Literary Festivals (PurdyFests) have had a great run. This longevity is almost unique among Canadian literary and poetry events, and certainly unique to have had these three-day  festivals in small town Ontario. Time, various circumstances and especially aging have closed the curtain on the Marmora festivals. Fortunately, some of the keener annual campers at ZenRiver Gardens plan to return next August long weekend, so visitors can continue to enjoy contemplative times on the edge of The Shield - and I'm sure some poems will be read, songs sung and memories refreshed. But the formal organization of the extensive series of events which was Marmora PurdyFest has had its curtain call.  

The good news is that PurdyFests and their spirit will continue to manifest in a number of other locations and in a variety of formats. Tai Grove, publisher of Hidden Brook Press and the President of the Canada-Cuba Literary Alliance, has plans to coordinate a PurdyFest somewhere along the shores of Lake Ontario next fall. Two longtime PurdyFesters, Jim Larwill and Katharine Beeman, have organized spin-off People's Poetry festivals in their locales. Jim has organized two Wolf Fests so far in the bush north of Ottawa, and Katharine has organized two "Festalitos" in Montreal. Kathy Figueroa has also organized two summer poetry festivals in Maynooth, and now that the Al Purdy A-frame is functioning as an area writer-in-residence location, annual summer picnics have been held there for the past two years as well. 

The first  PurdyFest was held in Marmora over the August long weekend in 2007. Poet James Deahl and author/philosopher Terry Barker were my fellow coordinators. James and Terry had been organizing a series of "poetry controversies" around southern Ontario on the subject of Canadian "People's Poetry", and they thought it would be fun to organize one of these discussions on Al Purdy's turf, as memorialized in his poem "the Country North of Belleville".

I agreed it would be fun to hold a poetry event on the edge of the Canadian Shield, and suggested that we should include poetry readings and other events along with the more academic "controversies". The "controversies" became our signature symposiums, focusing on the legacy of leading People's Poets such as Purdy and his close friend, fellow Governor General Award winning poet Milton Acorn.

Over the eight years PurdyFests symposiums honoured an historical catalogue of poets, from then still living Ray Souster, to those recently passed, such as Ted Plantos, and then we explored back through Canadian history with discussions on Dorothy Livesay and concluded this summer with Pauline Johnson.

When I toured Terry and James around Marmora on their first visit, they fell in love with the beauty of the Marmora area, and we decided to hold open air poetry readings on the islet in the middle of the Marmora Dam. Thus was born another PurdyFest tradition, "Another Dam Poetry Reading". A Who's Who of Canadian poets participated in the symposiums  and in the Dam Readings, including Jim Larwill, Honey Novick, James Deahl, David Day, Katharine Beeman, Pearl and Brian Pirie, Anna Yin, Jim Christy, Martin Durkin, Julie McNeill, Carol Malyon, Omaha RisinG, Allan Briesmaster, Anna Plesums, R. D. Roy, Kent Bowman, Mick Burrs, Gail Taylor, John Hamley, Shane Neilson and many,many more. Marmora singer Morley Ellis opened all the Dam Readings with professional performances which set the relaxed atmosphere for the readings. 

Tai Grove, publisher of Hidden Brook Press, and the President of The Canada-Cuba Literary Alliance, organized round robin readings at my nearby ZenRiver Gardens retreat on the Sunday afternoons of the fests. Many poets enjoyed camping at ZenRiver, and the Friday and Saturday night campfires and spontaneous events, such as Jim Larwill's amazing playlet featuring his nemesis, Wilber Walnut, will be fondly remembered by all. Participants Simon and Melanie always added a lot of colour to events with their campfire presentations of Hamilton street theatre.

As we toasted on the final day of last summer's PurdyFest, "PurdyFest is dead, long live PurdyFest!!!"



pic of PurdyFest #8 at ZenRiver Gardens by Sharon Henderson