most outrageous haiku poet ever (letter from Jones)

Following is a letter from Jones (Daniel Jones) which I'm sending to the Haiku Canada Archives. Among many interesting traits, Jones was a perfectionist, and in pre-computer days this letter is perfectly typed - no whiteout, no correctotape. Jones descended on the Toronto literary scene from Hamilton in the early 1980s. By 1994 he was dead at age 34 by suicide, a victim I feel of the frustrations of being an overly talented poet/writer/haikuist/publisher/editor/performer in a country which doesn't recognize such incredible talent early enough. 

I met Jones at a very informal poetry round robin reading at James Deahl's place. Jones made quite an entrance. He pulled out a bottle and spit the cork, then handed it around. When he read his first poem, I believe it was "things I have shoved in my ...", I fell over laughing. I asked if I could publish his poetry with my small Unfinished Monument Press, and quickly Jack and Jill in Toronto was printed. Soon after Wayne Ray published Jones's first and only collection of haiku, Two Cops Kissing, with his HMS Press.

Regarding his status as a unique haiku poet, Jones was known to have performed poetry readings buck naked. It is very painful reading through my correspondence file with Jones, but I hope to add more to the blog later. I've taken the liberty of highlighting Jones's paragraph about his perception of Haiku Canada.     

                                                             ~    ~    ~     

PO Box 794
Station P
Toronto,  Canada
M5S 2Z1

25 September 1989



Chris,

Thanks for the letter and for the haiku pamphlet. Apart from the spelling, McCawley did quite a nice job on it. Good news about the reading.

So thanks for the lead, I think. I sent this Mark McCawley 8 pieces from The Brave, and he took them all and made the same offer about the chaplbook. Now I'm a little dubious about the whole project. He seems earnest, if a little too much so. He sent me a long letter about "the spirit" of small press and his publication "credits", including such highlights as The Poetry Alberta Yearbook. Well, as you paraphrase Shaunt, "What the hey!" I guess.

I keep making these vague offers to visit via letter, and I'm wondering if I can hold up to them. I've never been so busy in my life. I mean it's been really insane. I haven't been able to visit Kevin Connolly since he moved 2 months ago, and he only moved to Queen and Woodbine. A visit does sound good, but I better not make any promises.

I had a letter from Tom Wayman who fled the city life and moved to the Slocan Valley.

Haiku Canada always makes me think of Team Canada in hockey. I passed Keith Southward on the street the other day, and he snubbed me as usual.

It seems I'm going to be organizing the Toronto Small Press Book Fair in the spring. That seems like a long time away, but  I have to start on it already. Stuart and Nick needed a rest, and no one else wanted to do  it, so I bit the bullet. I'm sharing the chores with someone named Glenn Gustafson, whom I've never met and is only 22. I really think I could do without this.

What's happening with UnfinMon? I seem to recall there were some problems with Shaunt and Jim I can't recall the details and don't really care. I guess in a few months I'l have to send out the stuff for the Book Fair. Should I send it to you? Ask Shaunt? Or just not bother? Just for my own interest, though, I am curious what's happening.

I hope you've got lots of wood for the stove. It's getting bloody cold already.

Best,

Jones

beach glass, The Printed Word. Shaunt, jones: unacknowledged legislators

Below the Bluffs

Below the bluffs
where the streetcar
tracks end
we wash our feet
in Lake Ontario's
grimy wavelets
gently toe
the wealth of
muti-coloured fragments
time-polished
from shattered
beer bottles

This is one of the small joys of being a poet, rediscovering a long forgotten poem in an old chapbook. I'm unloading packets of small press poetry chapbooks from the boxes which fill my front porch and basement. Thank God for new small press enthusiasts like James, the owner of The Printed Word bookstore in Dundas, Ontario. In a phone chat a few weeks ago James proclaimed his love of poetry, especially Canadian poetry. Most poetry fans stick with the mainstream poets, the sort of famous ones like Al Purdy. But a few devotees veer off the beaten track to discover the work of lesser known (e.g. publicized) Canadian poets like jones and Shaunt Basmajian. 

The packet I mailed James two days ago contained a small poetry anthology published by Mark McCawley with his Greensleeves Press. The other chapbook I sent was my own collection, Unacknowledged Legislator, kindly published by small press godfather bill bissett in 1981 with his alternative blewointmentpress. Yeah, this is a minor "filler" poem, but it was fun to find a piece I'd long forgotten I'd written, and a very good friend is a beach glass collector who I hope will enjoy reading it.

In conversation with James I learned that he admires several of the poets I published with my small Unfinished Monument Press, esp. Shaunt and jones (Daniel). Apparently jones's writing has achieved a cult following in CanLit, and perhaps Shaunt's work as well.   While preparing today's packet I started re-reading Shaunt's poetry, and tomorrow I'll post one of his excellent poems from Surplus Waste and Other Poems.

chapbooks and emails to new Canadian poetry bookstore, The Printed Word

The Printed Word (bookstore)
Dundas, Ontario


Hi James,

I'm so pleased to learn that there's a new generation of booksellers which is enthused about Canadian poetry and also the hippie era  :  )   I'm both things, in spades!

Today I mailed you a small (free) sample of the chapbooks I published from the mid-1970s thru the 1990s, just to pique your interest. Also it's fascinating that you know of jones (Daniel). I published his first chapbook, "Jack & Jill in Toronto", most of which was then included in his poetry collection with Coach House Press.

The chapbooks I mailed today are "Last Minutes Instructions" by Mark McCawley (he was also a small press publisher - he died a few years ago in his 50s), "Qaani Lore" by jw curry, who is a mainstay on the micro press scene, "Poets Who Don't Dance" by Shaunt Basmajian (he died over 30 years ago - stabbed and robbed while driving cab in TO), and "Dear Little Old Lady" by Helen Costain. This is just a random sampling of Unfinished Monument Press chapbooks, of which I had a few extra copies available.

Hopefully the hot link in my email below to Chris H is still live, and it'll fill you in on the list of readers and musicians I featured at the Main Street Library Poetry Series from 1979 to 1985.

Assuming the link is live, it will take you to my blog, riffs and ripples from zenriver gardens, where there's a lot of other info on my involvement with CanPo.

Great to get in touch (thanks to Chris H. for making the connection) -

Best wishes with the bookstore - it's a hard grind making a living in the Canadian cultural field.


peace & poetry power!

Chris (Faiers)

here's the link to the Idden Brook Press edition of "Eel Pie Island Dharma":

http://www.hiddenbrookpress.com/Book-NS-ChrisFairs-EelPie.html

                                                              ~   ~   ~   ~

 reply from James, owner of The Hidden Word bookstore

Hi Chris:

The package of Unfinished Monument arrived a few days ago and -- tho I looked at them immediately excitedly noting titles and authors and the fact that Jones edited Shaunt Basmajian's Poets Who Don't Dance which sounds like a Jones title (and the poems are closer to Jones than other Basmajian I've seen - admittedly mostly visual/concrete stuff) -- I've only now had a chance to sit down with them and type out my appreciation and say thank you for reaching out to me and sending a lovely sampling of your press.  I would definitely like to see more of what you have and discuss a purchase of valuables in your collection.  For example, any Jones that you have would be of interest.  I started collecting Jones a few years ago when I first acquired some of his chapbooks from Nelson Ball, and recently a friend traded in Jones' copy of Layton's Balls for a One-Armed Juggler with a stamp that has "Jones" in the middle, "My Book"  along the top and "Fuck Off" at the bottom.. this copy also Rochdale ex-libris). 

I'd love to have a copy or copies of your hippy poet memoir.  I'm sure of at least one buyer, and I would like read it myself.

I've got customers in front of me and work piling up so I will sign off.

thanks for the books!

James




photo from Google