bill bissett's brain

Hi Henry  :  )

Thanks for letting me know the blewointment antho arrived OK. I was beginning to suspect Canada Post had screwed up once again. And thanks for the compliments on my "5 mins ago . . ." poem in the antho. I wrote that poem in 1984, and it's by far my most anthologized work. In it I'm pretty sure I coined the term EQ as a corollary to IQ. I did a blog posting a while ago to establish a claim to this - for what it's worth:

http://riffsandripplesfromzenrivergardens.blogspot.com/2015/03/i-invented-eq-in-1984.html

Last night I finally reached Terry by phone, and we enjoyed our usual 1 1/2 hour chat catching up on TO poetry scene news. Terry was very interested to learn about the upcoming 80th birfday celebration of bill at the Tarragon Theater on Dec. 9. He said he'll check with Anna to get the online details, and he sounded like he was planning on attending. Terry met bill a couple of years ago when bill was in the process of moving. bill was unloading various items of flotsam and jetsam and he gave Terry a couple of paintings, altho Terry doesn't know who painted them (he didn't think they were by bill) or even if they were a gift or for Terry to keep for safekeeping. bill also gave Terry a rubber brain, hence Terry's claim that he has bill bissett's brain!!! All the more reason for Terry to attend bill's event at Tarragon.

Terry was aware of all the recent feting and publicity for Margaret Atwood's 80th birfday, and he liked my comparison of the parallel celebrations as the "Upstairs, Downstairs" of Canadian poetry:  )-

Talking about bill reminded Terry that many decades ago bill and Milton Acorn collaborated on a yet unpublished book. Some mysterious dude named Schmaltz was supposedly going to finally publish it, but nothing has happened re this so far as Terry is aware. 

Think I'll pass on the Chernobyl doc for the time being - as you know, I'm already far behind on all the various docs you've sent me  :  )

peace & poetry power!
Chris

p.s. I'll cc Anna on this so she'll know what Terry is talking about re bill bissett's Tarragon event



On 2019-11-26, at 1:53 PM, Henry wrote:

Hi Chris!
I checked for mail on Monday but there was nothing. Fortunately, I decided to check again when I took in the night air ;-)

Much to my excitement, your package arrived!!! Thank you so much for the blewointment Anthology! What a great work to receive!
I had to read Milton's poem immediately and then your poem. Your poem really shook me in its relevance. We have gotten complacent with the nuclear threat that continues to be a danger.

Coincidentally, I borrowed the recent tv miniseries 'Chernobyl' DVD from the library. It's about the 1986 nuclear catastrophe in the Soviet Union. Absolutely harrowing! Particularly illuminating is the examination of why the disaster occurred. It makes worried about the maintenance and operations of nuclear power plants. Darlington is uncomfortably close and I heard of a disaster test for the surrounding region recently.

Are you interested in seeing 'Chernobyl'? Warning: may scare the shit out of you! ;-)

thanks again for blewointment and your kind inscription!