rare Canadian poetry for postage cost (?)

bill bissett recently sent me the following request for help finding homes for extra copies of his seminal blewointmentpress collections. I also have extra copies of Unfinished Monument Press poetry I published from the late 1970s thru the 1980s. It looks like we're both open to offers - a little help with postage and you could snag some rare collectible Canadiana! 

dere chris hi great 2 heer from yu
evreething sounds xcelent ther
evreethings xcelent heer
iuv bin going thru all my stuff
taking out th xtra blewointmentpress'
books n stuff
wher i dont know th address uv th
prson
in a lot uv cases i dew n sent xtra copeez
2  th author  sumtimes i cant find out
tho n i need mor space heer
i drempt reelee uv yu cumming 4 t n
picking them n taking them 2 nicky in
t bay 2 sell them 4 yrself or give them 2
him whatevr yu want 2 dew on yr next
brillyant road trip n thers not that manee
uv them

itul prob take anothr month 4 me 2 get
it 2gethr
sumtime let me know if ths is a viabul or
brillyant plan 4 yu

hope yu ar having an awsum evreething
lots uv love n thanks
bill


still more offers:


Hi Chris,
Wonderful to hear from you -- as always. I guess there are a few of us in the same situation. I've got piles of Rampikes plus books from IWI Communications, and Underwhich Editions (two small presses that I was involved with years ago). Yeah, and Nicky is mighty far away.

It's an odd puzzle, isn't it? You'd think there would be something like a major Library wing or some "safe-house" for literary publishers (maybe funded by some arts-related government wing -- possibly on the municipal or provincial level). Well, I guess there is no such thing, although I do know that some libraries will take publishers' old poetry collections  (limited numbers -- a few copies of each book) for their archives. It might be worth a try approaching some Toronto libraries (either city libraries or maybe university or college ones).

I'm pretty sure that blewointment could find a home (has bill been consulted -- hope he's doing ok). Unfinished Monument doesn't have quite the fame, but it's still important and maybe the two could be linked with a library placement -- especially if there are some cross-over authors involved with both of those small presses. Just a thought.
I'm in the same situation. Sigh.

Peace and love to you to, brother!
Karl
Dr. Karl E. Jirgens, Editor, Rampike Magazine
Dept. of English Language, Literature & Creative Writing
Professor, University of Windsor

                                               
                                                      ~      ~      ~


$$$$ Be a mule for the CCLA.  :-)  books not drugs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear All – See the word BUT – it is an important BUT that you can help pay for.

Hi Chris and Bill – about your orphan poetry book collections

Let me start with the word BUT.

I can take one (1)  copy of every Canadian published book that you have BUT they will be going to Cuba. I have pledged to the University of Holguín that I will build the largest collection in all of Cuba of Canadian Literature – including poetry – for the university library. Actually we are well on the way. Kim and I are taking hundreds more this winter.

I have letters from the Cuban Consul, the head of the Canadian Studies program, from the head of the English department as well as from a professor that is coordinating this BUT we need money to pay for the shipping. Books are heavy. Because I am the prez of the CCLA – Canada Cuba Literary Alliance – we are given a free extra luggage to carry books when we fly West Jet.  If you want to go to Cuba with books I can arrange for you to have an extra luggage for the books also.

If you want to give the nudge to your friends and collect the cash we can take more but they will have to be paid for.

Collect the cash, send me the book and the cash and I will take them or arrange for them to go.

I THINK that they will charge me $30 for the 3rd luggage and $30 for each one after that but I will have to check. I will have to check my ticket for how heavy each $30 can be.

If anyone is interested you can contact me.

All the best

tai

This message is being sent from
Hidden Brook Press, or the personal email of Richard M. Grove = Tai

60s Commune Survivors

Two Twickenham screenwriters are writing a screenplay based on my memoir Eel Pie Island Dharma. As part of the creative process they are having email and long distance interviews with me about my background and experiences in the Eel Pie Island commune. The following emails are part of this exchange. The first was written by me, the second by Weed - I can't find Weed in the photo, so maybe he took the pic? That's me on the far left (where else) - I'd loaned my camera to another commune member to take this pic of the wedding of four of the Eel Pie islanders. Fall 1969!

Hi Tom & Sam,

Congrats on making major progress on your screenplay!

I was thinking of Cliff and Ame the other day, obviously because your project is stirring old memories. There were so many unresolvable contradictions in the late 1960s and the things we were involved with. Cliff was a consummate artist, and being an artist really didn't fit in with the hippie/commune lifestyle. Artists need time and space to create, whereas the hippie thing was about 'live for the moment', carpe diem.

I remember one of the commune women, Angie, who wanted to be a children's author. She commented how none of us were creating art - I wasn't writing much, the musicians were just getting stoned on hash all day, so I know Cliff must have had a hard time focusing on drawing his political cartoons and art. Weed has met with Cliff in fairly recent years, and he would have an interesting insight into Cliff's personality as well.

The concept of combining a hippie commune with an arts lab is laughable in hindsight. The psychedelic/hippie thing was created by artists and professors like Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey, via the beats like Kerouac, and then popularized by pop stars like The Beatles and The Stones. But as the culture filtered throughout society, it became increasingly watered down to the lowest common denominator. I remember someone snarking that I was wasting my time and money reading a book on psychedelics, rather than doing them. Well, shit, I'd done enough of them to know what the experiences were all about, but it's also helpful to be evaluative and creative as well as stoned and tripping all the time  ;  )- 

Cliff was one of the main founders of the EP commune, but none of us, esp. the artists, wanted to be "leaders". There was a definite vacuum of leadership because we all wanted to be equal AND stoned all the time, so no one was interested in assuming responsibility. Occasionally someone would move into the hotel and decide to be a "leader", but they soon found the responsibility of caring for all the runaway kids, heroin addicts, wannabe bikers etc. was not really very fulfilling  ;  )    (plus the pay was lousy)

Back to Cliff - I believe Cliff was more interested in the arts lab culture than creating a commune, but the sheer numbers of people moving in quickly overwhelmed the artsies among us. Also we were all poor, sometimes borderline starving, and I think Cliff mentioned in a book or an interview, that he had to do some petty hash dealing to survive. No money, no food, no privacy or place to create sure isn't conducive to artistic endeavours.

Hope this blather helps!
peace & continued creative energy!
Canadian Chris

p.s. I'm usu. available for long distance calls at short notice

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

hi Tom, Sam

>> what was Clifford Harper like when you first met him? And
>> what do you think his goal was for the commune?
> Weed... would have an interesting insight into Cliff's personality...

i take it you've already read his Wikipedia entry? -

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Harper )

Clifford talks a lot about Eel Pie in his book "The Education Of Desire - The Anarchist Graphics of Cliff Harper" (Anarres Cooperative, 1984) -- it's in the form of a long interview with Adam Cornford -

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Cornford

if you can't get hold of it, let me know and i'll scan the relevant pages for you

[from the book] "Eel Pie I intended as an armed camp. I dropped that idea within two weeks because the people didn't want to know, so I just let it go the way it wanted to go."

He was also very influenced by The Living Theatre -

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Living_Theatre

tho he wanted to create static bases rather than have a mobile one -- [from the book] "But my idea was that it be a centre from which we raided society. With experience, theatre and vibrant agitation."

in general he's scathing about the middle-class apolitical hippies of the late 60s :) "...I was nagging away about working class revolution... I was forced to become a foreign body within the commune... Eventually I was up against the mass ranks of hippiedom."

he also talks about his life as a dope dealer there, "making money hand over fist" (though this might have been relative, not so much Havana cigars, as being able to afford tobacco rather than having to roll up dogends lol)

Clifford was active as an artist at the time, and as well as developing his style, was contributing artwork to magazines (i think "Idiot International" may have been one of them), tho i don't know how often

however all that was over 30 years ago, and today he'd probably have other perspectives to add, though his political ideas and ideals are still very much intact

in a 2007 interview he was asked if he would ever consider rejoining a commune, and replied, "Now that is an interesting question. Anytime before now, if you had asked me that I would have answered with a hollow, cynical laugh, 'Ha, Ha' but considering it now, for the first time in some years, I’m surprised to say that, 'Yes, I would'. I must have a think about this."

my personal memories of Cliff from Eel Pie days are very positive -- he was for the most part unflustered by the surrounding chaos

the group that initially moved in with him (Ame, Simon, Jonathon, Brennan, Anna and possibly one or two others) provided a political sensibility and at least a semblance of stability for the first few months -- i'm pretty sure that Cliff would have been the one to notify BIT about the occupation of the Hotel, and about it being available as a crashpad for people who were homeless or were passing through London without a place to stay -

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIT_(alternative_information_centre)

coincidently i got an email from Clifford earlier today, more of a circular, saying that he was going into hospital this coming monday (23rd Oct) to have his bladder removed -- because of the weak condition of his heart the operation is riskier that usual -- however if all goes well he will be back home by the end of the month -- (if you've not already been in contact with him, then when he's sufficiently recovered i'm happy to check whether he's interested in talking to you about that period of his life)

Weed

Haunted Pumpkin Walk

Haunted Pumpkin Walk Marmora Lion's Park 2007 Councilor Cathie replies to my Halloween email with a request for me to fill in for a sick volunteer. She needs help carving nine pumpkins and placing other spooky decorations around the village's beautiful main park beside the Crowe River. Her idea is to have trick or treaters follow the park's circular paths along a haunted pumpkin walk to several candy stations - Tomorrow birds will feed on the drying seeds we drop in haste At dusk we return to the park. I'm no longer a particularly social being, having many years service as a village librarian. I find I now prefer the rare, but always honest, awareness in wild animals, a few fellow crazed poets, and solitary monks. But handing out candy to children on All Hallows Eve appeals to me. I set down the plastic cauldron of candy, break a large weed bedraggled branch from the muddy river bank, and - At the first bend black & white dog & warlock greet stirring river mist Tiny witch names me leprechaun: young eyes still clear 4-year-old boy in a skeleton suit will be me in 55 years My small dog leaves just once to visit another dog Slowly shadows circle the park swirling dead leaves The monster mash makes my stupid feet move into the mystic Fairy princess after fairy princess many kingdoms on display Chris Faiers "Cricket" November 2007

from ZenRiver: poems & haibun, Hidden Brook Press, 2008

---

Chris Faiers (home)   |   biography & bibliography   |   Eel Pie Dharma

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The Red and Green Pony: A Canadian Masterpiece (review of Milton Acorn by Ron Dart)

                          THE RED AND GREEN PONY :

                               A Canadian Masterpiece

                              
                                        by Ron Dart


I’ve Tasted My Blood was published in 1969, and many thought the poetic missive would take home the GG Award in 1970. George Bowering and Gwendolyn MacEwen won the Awards, and there was an immediate reaction to this disappointment. Robin Mathews played a significant role in blowing the whistle on the decision, and many others joined the opposition, and Acorn was offered the first Peoples Poet Award in 1970 as a stinging rebuke to being bypassed for the GG Award.



Al Purdy was instrumental in the bringing together I’ve Tasted My Blood,

and he wrote a lengthy and informative ‘Introduction’ to Acorn’s collection of poems. Most of I’ve Tasted My Blood is poetry, and poetry at the highest and most challenging and suggestive level, but there are two short stories at the centre of the book: ’The Legend of the Winged Dingus’ and ‘The Red and Green Pony’ are Acorn at his parabolic and storytelling best. Purdy had this to say about both tales:



       the stories are not ones that could be written by any other poet in

       Canada. They are a complete surprise, especially coming from a

       word-buster like Acorn. (p. XIV)



Or again:

 

       I’d call both stories simple magic, for each is a long-term spell cast

       on the reader. I’m a pretty factual person myself, and yet no matter

       how many times I read these stories or type them-they get to me. And

       I start to wonder: could there be a world like that? Well, if there can’t

       be, the next best thing is Acorn’s stories. My belief amounts to a naïve

       certainty that both are masterpieces.   (p. XIV)          

                      

There you have it. Purdy thought that both ‘The Legend of the Winged Dingus’ and ‘The Red and Green Pony’ were literary masterpieces and only Acorn could have composed such evocative stories. This short essay will reflect on the content of ‘The Red and Green Pony’ and ponder the political meaning of it.




 T he Red and Green Pony is one of the most important Canadian political parables, and it was written in the 1950s by Milton Acorn. The tale is a well told political fable that records and anticipates much that was about to unfold in the latter half of the 20th century. The leading protagonist is Tommy, and there is good reason to suspect that Tommy could be identified with Tommy Douglas (voted the most important Canadian’ in the 20th century in a CBC survey in 2004 and still on secret and classified files of the RCMP and CSIS). Acorn was holding Douglas high in a time when most reviled, opposed and sought to topple Douglas through a variety of questionable means. Douglas, for those who do not know, was the father-in-law of Donald Sutherland and the grandfather of Kiefer Sutherland.



The Red and Green Pony has a dynamic momentum to it, and it is divided into five sections that intricately interlock with one another. Section 1 walks the reader into a dream sequence in which Tommy enters a forest. The trees and leaves have a way of speaking to Tommy in this magical realm about things that went to his deeper longings and soul. It was in this dream world that Tommy met the red and green pony that was both red and green at the same time. It was hard to believe, even in a dream, that a pony could be both red and green. A conversation ensued between Tommy and the pony about the actual reality of the pony. There is no doubt that Tommy is drawn to the feisty pony, but he is young on the journey, and he is not quite sure what to make of the vision and conversation with the pony. The hair of the pony was ‘tangled’ and Tommy noted that it needed ‘combing’. It was just a matter of time before ‘the dream was gone’, ‘he was lying in bed’, ‘it was day and not as bright as the dream’ and Tommy had to remember to bring a ‘comb and a hairbrush’ when he next returned. Section I has a surrealistic and naïve visionary quality about it, but there is much in it about the tangled idealism of the political left that needed combing to formally engage the political process in a meaningful manner. Most knew what ‘Red’ meant on the political spectrum, and ecological ‘Green’ was just emerging. The political pony that Acorn envisioned in this parable would be a fusion of left of centre ‘Red’ and ‘Green’. But, there would be opposition from the old guard. It is in Section 2 that the dialectic of thesis becomes antithesis and a waking from the dream occurs.     



Section 2 shifts from the dream world to a sort of waking state. Tommy is now in his parents’ home, and he is about to join them for breakfast. His father is reading a paper, and his initial comments are, ‘CCF’s running a candidate here again. Are they ever going to learn that we here in Ontario don’t want them?’ Tommy’s mother is a faint echo of his father’s political views. His father then mentions the USA: ‘Yanks kicking up a fuss about Negroes going to white schools again’. Tommy’s mother tries to move the discussion from newspaper politics to Tommy’s need to be clean and eat a proper breakfast. There is no doubt that Tommy comes from a family that is rather bourgeois and right of centre on the political spectrum. It is just a matter of time before Tommy blurted out that he had had a dream, and in the dream he had seen a red and green pony. His father has no problem with the dream provided it remains a dream. ‘Now did you ever see a pony on the street with red and green patches?’ Tommy wants to make it clear that the dream was real, and it has significant meaning. The mother makes clear ‘it was only a dream’. Both father and mother become quite worried that Tommy might confuse a dream with reality and begin to act rather foolish ‘on the street’. The conversation ended, and Tommy went upstairs and looked out the window. He saw a sign that said. ‘Warning, No swimming or fishing. Water polluted. Order of Ontario Department of Health’. Tommy was late for breakfast that day, and he soon forgot about the red and green pony. The day soon passed, ‘but when Tommy went to sleep that night he put a comb under his pillow’.



It does not take too much reflection to see that Tommy is Tommy Douglas of the CCF, Tommy’s vision often collided with an established view of reality, the red and green embody leftist thought and ecological issues, and the wild and tangled hair on the solid body (that needed combing) reflected all the diverse and often prickly elements in the political left that Douglas had to comb. The fact that this short story was written in the 1950s makes it abundantly clear that Acorn anticipated many of the substantive issues that were about to emerge on the public stage in the 1960s-1970s and that we still face today. The dialectical antithesis was about to become a more demanding synthesis, though.



Section 3 walks the reader back into the magic realism drama of Tommy. The leaves greet Tommy with great joy as he enters the world where the ‘flowered branches’ and the ‘tufts of the grass’ swung over him like ‘pony-tails’. The red and green pony is there to meet Tommy, and he inquires about the comb—it had been brought and Tommy brushes all the tangles and knots on the pony’s hair. It is just a matter of time before another conversation begins between Tommy and the pony about Tommy’s father and his right of centre political ideas. The question is raised about whose facts and view of reality should be listened to and why. Who defines what is dream and what reality?  Tommy bonds closer and closer to the red and green pony, and he is soon on the pony’s back and riding the friendly yet energetic animal with much delight and fondness. Section 3 ends with the dream over, and Tommy waking to the sound and sight of a starling on his window-sill. Tommy looks down at the ‘polluted river’ and a world in which ‘ugliness was coiled with beauty’. The vision has definitely deepened and solidified for Tommy in Section III, and the experience of the dream world is set in stark and graphic contrast to the lived reality his mother, father and the economic and ecological setting of the time.



Section 4 takes Tommy and the interested reader back into the world of Tommy’s parents. The red and green pony is now much more real to Tommy, and his interpretation of what he sees and does is informed by such a reality. Tommy’s mother tends to come across in the story as warmer and more affectionate, whereas his father is stern, dogmatic and ideological. Tommy’s mother finds him down by the polluted river and urges him to return home for dinner. A family feud soon emerges between mother and father about what to do with Tommy’s increasing interest and belief in the reality of a red and green pony. The intensity of the clash becomes so pronounced that Tommy runs away after declaring that he has seen and believes in the Red and Green Pony with capital letters. The commitment to the vision is now dividing the family and parents.



Section 5 brings the tensions between idealism and realism together in a thoughtful manner. It is Nature again that has become Tommy’s real family, and it is in the arms of Nature that Tommy is comforted and befriended. It is

Tommy’s mother that comes searching for him, and there is a poignant episode in which Tommy watches a ‘long legged wolf spider’ attack and kill a harmless bug on a tender grass-stem. The Red and Green Pony appears again and wonders if Tommy has brought the hairbrush. Tommy had brought the hairbrush, and he began combing out the deeper knots on the pony, and at the same time he can vaguely hear his parents. There is a distinctive sense in which Tommy is living in two worlds and he needs to know which he will heed and why. There is a surrealistic scene in which the Red and Green Pony runs straight through Tommy’s parents (they seem to have no substance), and he then leaves Tommy with a few comments to ponder as the tale draws to a close. ‘To listen properly you’ve got to do it and not talk about it’. Much of this story is about who will be listened to and why. Tommy is pulled in diverse directions through the mini-drama, and there are consequences for not hearing and heeding the best voices. The final lines conclude and sum up the deeper message of the fable.

“Where are we going, Red and Green Pony?” he asked.

“All the way,” said the pony. “Often and often you’ve got to go all the way so you can properly get back”. There is something in the final few words that have echoes of Plato’s famous cave parable, and I’m sure Acorn was quite aware of his updated version of Plato’s synthesis of philosophy and politics in a mythic form.



The Red and Green Pony hovers on the edge of an allegory—it is part myth, part fable, part parable. The message cannot be missed. The tale is about the process that must be gone through to see through different and more informed eyes. The transition means letting go of much only to receive much. The pilgrimage often means going all the way before the journey back can be taken. We might wonder what going all the way means, but this is the mystery and uncertainty that Acorn leaves us with as the short story ends.



It is significant to note that Milton Acorn’s religious roots were Anglican, and Tommy Douglas’ were Baptist. Both had leanings, even in the 1950s, in the direction of both red and green, and, in this sense, the common good of both the land and people were united in one integrated whole. The Red and Green Pony is must read and classic of Canadian political tale telling. It is rather sad that so few know such an evocative political parable. There is a significant sense in which Acorn’s The Red and Green Pony and Douglas’

classic parable, Cats and Mice, have much in common, and the obvious convergence of these not to be forgotten tales make two points abundantly clear: art, religion and politics should not be isolated from one another, and equally important, faith and politics need not unite and merge into a republican brand of conservatism. The more we are immersed in the life, activism and writings of Tommy Douglas and Milton Acorn, the more we will be walked into a unique Canadian synthesis of faith, literature and politics that has still much to commend it. 



Appendix



It is significant to note that when Acorn was in the Vancouver area between 1963-1968, he had an ongoing confrontation in 1965 with the Stanley Park Aquarium. A killer whale was being kept in confined space and Acorn relentlessly (mostly alone) challenged the administration to change the conditions of the whale’s imprisonment. The whale did try to break loose through a port hole, and in the process, was seriously damaged. There is a fine poem by Joe Rosenblatt called “Milton & the Swan” that touches on the incident and a trip to the zoo taken by Acorn and Rosenblatt. We can see, in the killer whale—Stanley Park Aquarium incident in 1965, Acorn was ahead of his time in Animal Rights also.          





Ron Dart                              


                                                                    ~   ~   ~   ~



On 2017-10-15, at 2:36 PM, Robert Acorn wrote:

    Chris, For fun you may be interested to know that Milton told me that I was the Red and Green Pony. Robert Acorn

                                                                       .   .   .

Hi Robert,
Thanks for the 'insider' information!

Hope you are doing well and still winning the occasional bet at the Charlottetown horse track  ;  )-

I really enjoyed your poetry collections. Sadly, the anthology on Milt Terry Barker and I were co-editing never came to fruition. We collected lots of great poems and ephemera, but Terry had a hard time getting the academics to write and contribute their essays. Terry still has hopes of bringing out "Acornucopia", but I'm afraid I've lost my energy & enthusiasm for the project. Most of my focus now is on curating whatever literary legacy I may be leaving. One flukey item of interest is that two Brit screenwriters are working on a movie screenplay for my "Eel Pie Dharma" memoir.  Here's the blog post:

http://riffsandripplesfromzenrivergardens.blogspot.ca/2017/07/

best wishes,
peace & poetry power!
Chris

p.s. I've cc'ed the author of the essay, Ron Dart, as he may be interested in knowing the 'true, real' identity of the pony, and Shane Neilsen, who is a super fan of Milt's. I know Shane would love to have copies of your books.