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 

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

Beth Jankola: the sunflowers poet

On Sept. 21, 1983 Beth Jankola was a featured Canada Council reader at The Main Street Library Poetry Series I ran. I checked the date in the guest book I've kept. Old memories play tricks, though, because I have a much clearer memory of Beth staying at my Rhodes Avenue starter home semi in east end Toronto a few years later, after I'd folded the series. Beth spent her time in my fenced back garden, drawing, dreaming and watching my newly planted gardens emerge. 

Another check with my memory banks, and I learned that both Beth and I had small poetry books published with bill bissett's iconic blewointmentpress in 1981. 

The file I'm sending today should really be in an art gallery, not a literary archives. The file is bulging with 40 letters between us, many decorated with Beth's intricate pen and ink art. Here's a haiku, inscribed on rice paper in bold black ink, overlaying a beautiful and unique drawing of the poem:

 

The sunflower burns

 black & bold yet to win

 the suns gold

 I wish my system could reproduce her drawing! 

  

BETH JANKOLA OBITUARY

April 30, 1936 - April 11, 2022
 

Painter, Poet, Graphic Artist, Intellectual, Teacher, Mentor - Beth was "a mover and a shaker," a recognized talent in all her fields. She held two degrees; an Education BA from UBC (1966) and a BFA from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (1998). A powerful woman in a time when the expectation for women was to embrace the domestic. She had an amazing amount of energy and perseverance.
Beth grew up as Hester Elizabeth Saxby, in small town Southern Alberta. She had a painful upbringing which she didn't like to talk about. She was a private and proud person. She was sent to a Catholic boarding school in another town to finish her senior secondary education. She was sixteen when she met Joe(y) Jankola while he was travelling with his baseball team. They went dancing, they loved to dance, and continued their complicated movements together for the next seventy years.
 

After moving to the West Coast with Joe (1960s), Beth worked briefly at the Vancouver Sun, then The School for the Blind in Kitsilano. She then moved to Bamfield, to teach at the schoolhouse. After attaining her teaching degree, she taught at the New School in East Van. During this time she became actively involved in the Vancouver poetry scene, publishing approximately 14 books/chapbooks, giving readings and supporting fellow poets.
 

Her other talents included finding and selling beautiful treasures at her often frequented "boutiques," flea markets, and rummage sales. She had a good eye for buying, selling and making jewelry. She collected percussion instruments, pottery, woven baskets, books, Mexican artifacts, black Madonna's, unique clothing, kitchen ware, glasses - whatever was "needed" or beautiful. She hated cooking but was a fabulous cook - dinner was on the table every night except Fridays, her "day off." She hated housework but the house was always tidy and creatively decorated. She liked to garden for ascetics not for production; her rock gardens and fences were admired by many. She was a prolific reader and a member of her much loved book club in Sechelt. She was also a member of a drumming circle. She was good at everything she put her energy into.
 

Some of Beth's travels included participating in poetry readings Canada wide, attending painting classes in Italy, vacationing in her later years with Joe in Mexico and Cuba. She spent the last twenty years of her life on the Sunshine Coast where she was involved in the art scene and other organizations dear to her heart and/or necessary for her survival.
 

Beth was a loving partner, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, cousin, friend - not in a traditional way but in her own unique style. She was ferociously proud of her children and grandchildren. Her family nickname was "The Bear." She was a role model for her family - always independent, creative and actively pursuing her callings.
 

Beth always said she was so grateful to Joe for "letting her" do her own thing. Joe built all of the frames for her paintings. They cared for each other in their own way right till the end. Joe sought out Beth in their Sechelt home, to be with him as he took his last breath on June 20, 2020.
Joe's death was a tremendous shock for Beth. They were both such vibrant, engaged with life characters, neither planned to die. Beth declined rapidly after Joe stepped off the dance floor.
Beth also adored her younger brother David, who predeceased her. It was a hard loss for her - she always had one of his childhood photos close to wherever she hung her beret. She built a small outdoor shrine for him at her Sechelt home.
 

Beth leaves behind her daughter Jody, son John, grandchildren Cheyenne, Skeena, Caleb and Jared, sister-in-law Mary, nieces and nephew Gillian, Gregar, Tanis, Linda and Cathy, and many other friends across Canada. Her family is fiercely proud of her and encourages you to google Beth Jankola for more detailed information about her career as a poet and artist.
We invite you to come and honour Beth and Joe at an outdoor gathering to be held on Saturday, July 23rd, 2-5 pm, at 1711 Field Road, Sechelt. Please save the date! In lieu of flowers, please bring a lawn chair and your favourite Covid-safe finger food for an outside potluck (no cutlery required please).

Published by The Coast Reporter on May 20, 2022.

 

 

the cover of her book Sunflowers

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

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