bill bissett appointed to Order of Canada/gentil ask for th secret handshake peer support group

 NEWS | TUESDAY JULY 2, 2024

bill bissett Appointed to the Order of Canada!

Legendary pioneer of sound, visual, and performance poetry bill bissett has been appointed to the Order of Canada! bill is the author of over 60 books of poetry including its th sailors life / still in treetment, breth, and inkorrect thots and co-founded the Secret Handshake Gallery, a peer-support facility for people with schizophrenia. A huge congratulations to bill for this well-deserved honour!

Read all about it here.

from Talonbooks website 

Subject: a loveing n gentil ask on behalf uv th secret handshake peer support group network 4 peopul with schizophrenia

Date: July 4, 2024 at 10:08:49 AM EDT

To: bill bissett <centralianwings@gmail.com

From: bill bissett <centralianwings@gmail.com>

Subject: a loveing n gentil ask on behalf uv th secret handshake peer support group network 4 peopul with schizophrenia

Date: July 2, 2024 at 1:58:11 AM EDT

a loveing and gentle ask on behalf of the secret handshake peer support group network 4 peopul with schizophrenia

 

you can dew direkt deposit     recipient  the secret handshake  email  thesecrethandshake3@gmail.com  

or you can send a chek  if yu like   2 the secret handshake  c/o bill bissett   60 homewood ave  apt #219  toronto  ontario   

M4Y 2X4 

the secret handshake   peer support network  group  4 people with schizophrenia is looking 4 donaysyuns  n help with

th rising costs   wud you like 2 help   no amount is 2 small   wud yu lke 2 help out th secret handshake   a wundrful 

group network n its club hous 4 manee hours uv peer support sessyuns pr week 4 people with schizophrenia a place

2 go without stigma  condescensyun  or creating mor problems thn it solves   heer we sort out our lives ourselvs

people with schizophrenia  ar also oftn artists   painters n writers   poets  novelists  dansers  singers   and we have a gallery  

showing the works of members  friends  fellow travelers and  supportiv allies  and likewise   many poetry readings similarlee 

put 2gether    IAM is wun uv our biggest donors  and sum private donors also big time   but we are always needing 2 rais more

 

sew we are opn six dayze a week  monday 2 friday   1-4 and saturday  2-5 pm   drop in n see our art shows   ask 2 be on our 

mailing lists  and we will b abul 2 let yu know evreething that's going on in our club house  at  360 college st  #301  third floor

elevator from th ground  only a few bloks west of spadina

evry second monday of evry month honey novick teeches vois yoga  relees of pent up paradigms thru singing

n if yu ar on our mailing list yu will reseev epostrs uv all our publik events

thanks sew much 4 tuneing in here  n if you donate you will receave very quiklee a charitabul donaysyun receipt

helpful 4 yr incum tax deductions     and if you’ve already given   cud you 4ward this ask on to other people  friends and allies

I'll always be indebted to bill for publishing my first non-selfpublished poetry collection, Unacknowledged Legislator, with his blewointmentpress in 1981 

Henry Martinuk video: Honey Novick and bill bissett reading

Hello you fabulous poets! I've posted photos on Facebook & a video on YouTube https://youtu.be/gISQAn_Kc1M

Celebrating National Poetry Month - The Secret Handshake Art Gallery, To...

It was a fantastic afternoon of poetry and community spirit. The good news is that Honey & bill will be reading on April 20th, same bat channel.

Nothing like poetry to reinvigorate my tired spirit!
best, Henry

Hi Chris,

Did Henry let you know that I will be hosting a poetry program at the High Park Library on April 25th next week. It starts at 7:00    My readers are Professor Al Moritz, Daniel Maluka, Patrick Connors, Judith Penfold and Me. Would be an honor to  see you there.

Bernadette (Gabay dyer)

my file on bill bissett (donation to Haiku Canada Archives)

 
I've decided to make some use of this long needed drizzly day. My haiku/poetry file boxes are emptying too slowly, and it's a bittersweet pastime revisiting old literary friends through our long ago shared correspondence. It's hard to let them go, but I feel my clock is ticking.  

Today I selected my bill bissett file. I featured bill at a couple of the Main Street Library Poetry Series readings I organized in the late 1970s - early 1980s in Toronto. bill was one of the first poets I was able to feature through funding from  the Canada Council. It was an honour to feature such a giant of the Canadian poetry scene, and bill needed the sponsorship of several readings to qualify for his air fare from B.C. to Toronto.    

bill is a genuinely sweet person, often a rarity on the CanLit scene. We stayed in touch by snail mail, and we still share occasional emails. Several times in recent years bill has sent me new poems which I've featured on my blog, "riffs and ripples from zenriver gardens". A friend who keeps me current of some of bill's readings and projects is Toronto based videographer Henry Martinuk. bill is still very active on the international poetry scene into his eighties, while I've considered myself a country mouse and been long retired from the poetry reading circuits.  

Through meeting bill on his visits to Toronto I decided to query him about  publishing some of my poetry. Luck was on my side, as another poet had backed out of his current blewointmentpress project and I believe bill needed another publication to continue qualifying for funding.

Unacknowledged Legislator was my first non self-published collection in 1981. It's a judgment call whether it's a large well produced chapbook or a small book. Of interest to the haiku world is it contained 14 haiku/senryu. In 1981 most Canuck poets either weren't aware of haiku, or shied away from it because it was generally considered a minor poetic form. I'll always be grateful to bill for giving me a foothold on the CanLit scene with its publication.

bill's correspondence will be of special interest to The University of Victoria collections, as for decades bill was primarily a B.C. resident and known as a B.C. poet.

The file I'm sending contains 12 letters from bill to me, and 4 post cards. Many of bill's letters are hand written and feature his artistic doodlings. There are 10 typed letters from me to bill, and I guess his archives have any cards which I've sent to him over the years.   


peace & poetry power!
Chris/cricket



one of my poems from unacknowledged legislator

Picaresque at 31


Imagine Mark Twain
a mustachioed old bushrat
bending over an icy stream
eyes reflecting crazy dreams
of golden rafts and castles
in an empty placer pan

or George Orwell grown ragged
smelling of sweat and spilled soup
still the grimy plongeur
in a foreign kitchen
the slab of pork on his shoulder
the hero in a mute fable

Yesterday Dave left for Mexico
with $200 & a rail pass
Today Don arrived from Vancouver
with dreams of Greenwood winners
Their young lives so immediate at 21

while 10 years older my eyes spin
narrowing and dilating with memories
of my own picaresque life
& how I have to transmute it
or shoulder this slab of pork
the rest of my golden days

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!

celebrations for bill bissett's 80th birthday: Tarragon Theater Dec. 9

bill was the first person to publish a non self-published collection of my poetry, unacknowledged legislator, with his blewointmentpress in 1981. I met bill when I featured him several times at The Main Street Library Poetry Series I organized in Toronto in the late 1970s through the mid 1980s. bill is an artistic polymath and a dynamic and heartfelt performer - many congrats to bill on his 80th birthday and that he's still rockin' the freeworld at 80!  

bill bissett in Brooklyn, St. Catherines, New York, and Toronto!

bill bissett will celebrate his eightieth brethday with a series of poetry readings from his new collection, breth.
Saturday, November 16
7 p.m.
Niagara Artists Centre
354 St. Paul Street
St. Catherines, ON
Monday, November 18
6:30 p.m.
Pratt Institute
Schafler Gallery
200 Willougby
Brooklyn, NY
Wednesday, November 20
6 p.m.
The Player’s Club
16 Gramercy Park Street
New York, NY
Thursday, November 21
7 p.m.
Poets House
10 River Terrace
New York, NY
Monday, December 9
8 p.m.
Tarragon Theatre
30 Bridgman Avenue
Toronto, ON

bill bissett celebrates 80th birthday at Poets House in NYC

North of Invention: A berthDay Celebration with bill bissett

Introduced by Adeena Karasick

Nov 21, 2019 | 7:00 pm

On the occasion of polymath bill bissett’s 80th birthday, join us in welcoming the poet, painter, musician, and editor to Poets House! bissett will present on his legendary career in Canadian small press publishing, introduced by Adeena Karasick. The evening will conclude with a reading from bissett’s latest collection, breth.
Co-presented with the Consulate General of Canada.
(Photo Credit: Aloysius Wong)

Admission $10, $7 for students and seniors, free to Poets House members

+ Google Calendar+ iCal Export

Details

Date:

Nov 21, 2019

Time:

7:00 pm

Event Category:

Readings and Conversations

Venue

Elizabeth Kray Hall, Poets House

10 River Terrace
New York, NY 10282 United States + Google Map

Phone:

212-431-7920

Website:

www.poetshouse.org

breth: new bill bissett collection his largest

• Add to cart $29.95

ISBN: 9781772012262 | softcover

$29.95 | 544 pages | Pub. Date: 2019
6 W × 9 H × 1.5 D inches
Poetry | Frontlist | Bisac: LCO006000
ISBN 13: 9781772012262 | Rights: WORLD

breth
 

th treez uv lunaria: selektid rare n nu pomes n drawings, 1957–2019
By bill bissett

breth presents both new and selected poems from legendary Canadian sound, visual, and performance poet bill bissett. bissett’s innovations have shaped poetry, music, painting, and publishing and have stimulated, provoked, influenced, shocked, and delighted audiences for half a century. This new collection, bissett writes,

“shows sew manee threds thru poetree n langwage btween n thru lyrik sound song vizual narrativ non narrativ his her storikal naytur humour sexual romantik politikul metaphysikal spiritual fuseyun th pickshur image in th lettr th shape uv th lettr in th drawing line orchestrating th needs 4 caring n heering n being with each othr all th drama uv all uv us lerning why n how creating thru art n th bizness uv life a much mor free n equitabul societee b r e t h contains manee storeez uv being ther n getting ther n uv th love uv art n each othr th sharing times n th losses in our journeez 2 b helping each othr n th planet erth nobody owns n thru art manee ways uv lifting ourselvs with kleen watr erth fire n air n love ths b r e t h is abt thees adventurs uv sharing physical being n love spiritual n touching th manee ways art poetree can take us byond th gift n prison uv self in2 th manee worlds in n uv ths beautiful galaxee n ourselvs uttring th sounds in th images n lettrs n lettrs 2 manee passing comets n ourselvs spin th reel dreem xchanging love 4 love our manee selvs on fire our gifts 2 each othr n ourselvs that evreewun has enuff ths time uv th sun n th lite in th dark touch th sun in time with joy n sorrow lerning n unlerning langwage n poetree can show we join with ourselvs n each other.”

This volume, the largest in bill bissett’s publication history, includes more than a hundred illustrations and visual poems, many of them appearing in print for the first time, as well as a foreword by fellow poet Tim Atkins (author of Folklore and On Fathers < On Daughtyrs), a bibliographical “a r c h i v e,” and an index of poem titles.

"[bill bissett is] that rarest of literary figures: a countercultural icon who continues to compel and confound."
—The Toronto Star

There are a lot of a-holes on the CanPo scene - and I've known many of them. But bill bissett is something different - a nice guy poet who's also genuinely creative, supportive of other poets,  a small press publisher, a great visual artist, AND . . . he published my first non-selfpublished collection, Unacknowledged Legislator, with his blewointmentpress in 1981. bill is still rocking poetry into his 80s - me, my poetic licence expired with the PurdyFests  :  )-

- Chris

the secret handshake: concrete is porous: act 1: visual (thanks to bill bissett for sending!)

Hi bill,

Many thanks for sending these  :  )  I was only able to publish one of the posters - think it has to do with Google restrictions, so I chose the one with your shaman drum graphic.

http://riffsandripplesfromzenrivergardens.blogspot.com/

Trust all is well with you?

I'm fine - still out here in the boonies on the edge of The Shield, walking by the Crowe River almost every day. Other than that, curating my poetry stuff and basically hibernating during this crazy climate change winter.

much love,
Chris

"my" pet ravens
flapping in the snow
digging for treats

honk a doodle!
trumpeter swans
up and down the Crowe