Correspondence - George Bowering to Al Purdy

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Bowering#2, 1719 Yew StVancouver 9, B.C.Jan 14/63Dear Al-Yr officially invited here, for sure, and the date for your reading is sorta set for the 12th of February, tho there is a possibility of its being changed to the 11th. In any case, you better write, stating your agreement to appear then, to:Helen Sonthoff,English Dept,University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, B.C.Also, yr fee for the UBC reading will be $100. How's that?Also I'm at work on the CBC here, and they say they are inter sted in programs for you and Dorn, and that the only problem is schedule, & that they will write me soon as word of time is available, and I'll keep the pressure on.Also, I've been invited to University of Arizona for five days next year, by their poetry center, as visiting poet. Dont know how i got snuck in among the Duncans, Lowells, Rexroths on their list, but i aint complaining.Best,
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George BoweringApt 2- 1719 Yew St Vancouver 9, B.C.June 30/63Dear Al-There is a rumor circulating here that you plan to come & live in Van. come next Fall. Is this true? If so, or otherwise, did you know that Angela & I wont be here after the end of August, or probably abt the 25th of that month? We're going to Calgary of all places, for a couple years, me teaching there to raise money to pay abt 3000 dollars of debts, and to save further money to go away the third day, like to Spain or something.Phyllis is over the fuss she was getting into (beating traffic lights, etc) when she wondered if she was going to get the Can. Council. She's figuring on going to Calif, she says. Needles to say, I didnt get mine; in fact an asshole newspaper and bad play-writer here got one for XRight now Angela and I are out of money, cant pay the rent, and cant get along on her 11 dollars a week unemploy. insurance. I am going to work for a week next week sticking stickers on windshields, but that will just buy food for awhile. Not that I'm complaining, but the landlord and other bill-senders will be. I'm working on my orals, or that is, I wd be if I wasnt writing you. I get examined on Wednesday the 3rd, and Daniells is on my committee, nice eh? He just had a book on Milton publisht.I've read Acorn's book, but havent yet read the special Fiddlehead book; and i think the latter should have been given a distinctive name, as was done in an Olson book that was published as a issue of Origin long ago. I liked the Contact bk, quite a bit, tho as you know that kind of prol poetry is not the kind I write. The book by Grier shdnt have been publisht I think. They shd have done a book by a poet rather than a painter.I wrote a 1 1/2 hour play in ten scenes, one scene a day. This is the best way for me to work, on a schedule like that. I'm going to revise & send it to CBC when my orals are done. I've written and saved 14. poems this month, too. Also a long children's story.A letter from McFadden, who says he's not going to publish any poems for 2 years, till he gets better at writing them. I dont know. He never says much seriously.sake.Write, eh ?
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Apt 2, 1719 Yew St Vancouver 9, B.C.July 15, 1963Dear Al,Yr letter real enjoyable, especially in part the five dollars, you lovable impulsive bugger, we took it right out and bought groceries. You better look out or I'll send you 400 poems in exchange. That's the going rate as now. We love you.Phyllis was up yesterday in a lowcut summer dress, and I noticed that she was pretty well stackt. Angela was home, so nothing developed. Of course, you know that I wd never oerstep the bonds of sacrid matermony, but maybe I would of LOOKED harder, you know.Speaking of poets, Bryan McCarthy was over the other night, bringing beer and all, and I scared up some friends' home made wine, and we argued poetry till 2:30 in the morn, when I chased him and John Mills out. McCarthy is quite a romantic, isnt he? Has all those unshakeable English trainings, such as "The poem must give evidence that the poet experienced a strong emotional response to experience," and all that. Anyway, he's kinda interesting to talk to.Kearns was in today, with news that his whole family is getting over the chicken pocks, and he has written 2 notebooks full of a poem called "How See Hear, George"—which shd prove interesting. Everybody across the land is talking abt how bad Dudeks long poem in Delta last is. Well, anyway, Birney once read a series of Anglo Saxon -things on CBCTV.I am still in the throes of rewriting my long TV play called "What Does Eddie Williams Want?"-—cute, eh? I HATE the goddam time it takes me to type out things. Goddamn it! Anyway, after that I have to read and criticize the MS biography of a deaf blind woman, for which awful chore I shd make enough $ to register for the summer poetry thing.I got thru my orals, okay, tho I had a hell of a squabble with a fairy new prof who wanted to argue the fuggin time away abt my terminology for sake. Warren Tallman finally shut him up, and I got a good mark, tho I was pisst off not having any time to tell them what I know. Danniells sent apologies because he cdnt come at the last moment, and I accepted graciously. Probly afraid I'm show him some poetry as rebuff to his crap.Jesus Christ, yr writing is hard to read. I didnt notice for a half hour of puzzlement that I was holding the page upside down.Heard Macewen and Hertz stuff on the radio show. Not overly impressed. Hertz was mildly good for a juvenile delinquent romantic, or as Dudek or someone called him, "A young Rimbaud."
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My buddy Willy has been in Europe all summer, now is working in a bakery at Oxford. There are two other girls living here (partly, I suppose, off us) besides my wife, and it makes my schedule somewhat funny.Hey, I'll be leaving this burg abt the 17th of August, and staying in Oliver,B.C. till about the 25th I think. I want to get out of here as soon as I can to keep rent and bills down as much as possible. Also, tho I want to see you and Birney before I leave, and apparently he is coming abt that time, Phyllis reports. So you shd be here before that, or stop off in Oliver in way thru.It's not on direct line, so roll off the rods nearest there if I'm there then.I can probly be more definite a lil later on.I dont know what the hell I'm going to teach this Fall. You knew I had 2 clas ses last winter, one of Engineering students, and one of first year Education girls. Well, I passed evry one of the Engineers and failed of the girls.How do you like that. The whole bastardly college setup is going to hear from me, you can bet yr smock. I'm going to dedicate my life or part of it to buggering up the whole blackboard business. Anyway, I'll be teachinga couple survey (Chaucer---Frost) courses , one to Engineers, and the otherin two sections to rosy arts student. Fug. I'll tell them to scan Eliot briefly, then scan Baudelaire's briefs.What the hell has Robt Weaver and Eli Mandel got against me? What have they got against poetry? Good folks to have as enemies, anyway. Apparently Vie aver was here for a gathering, and phoned me 4 times, but I was out of town. Probably lost a chance to suckhole my way into Tamarckle.What's happened to Bloody Horseshit?I'm apparently going to have some tutoring of poor stupid anti-literachur kids for summer school and am going to soak them $4/hour, so shd have some money coming in soon. (Dont ever get a Royal typewriter. The fuckin things are no good!)I saw yr article in CM (read it in bookstore. I wdnt buy the fuckin thing.Maybe I'll hock it for keeping yr article) Picture of Tishers in next issue, I'm told.Tell me all abt selling manuscripts to a college. Do you have to be part of the Establishment? (Okay, that's one kick in the arse you owe me) But seriously, do tell me.Love & adorations,
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George rowering VancouverFASION ELEGYfor things in fashion every man will wear, and wear himself down,eyes, teeth, knees, golden spinning hips to a woman dreaming and smiling behind his woman,lying behind the fog of his open eyes her face behind the sweat on the pillow.Every man would punch thru to her, held back by the woman under his belly,:for there is love, reaching thru your love for her unattainable absolute smileback of it all, back of her, andback to her. This is love, to come back to her, saying This is you,I love you. I will wear you, dressed for your smiling eyesbehind you.July 31, 1963
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VancouverJuly 31, 1963Dear Al;FIRST of all, wonderful news abt yr M&S book is loved and appreciated much here, and let me say I think the title is superb, as is the poem its from. You who last winter sd you were ever and ever reviled by M&S and Tamarack, now taken in under wings of both academies, tch tch. No, really, I think it fitting and lovely. Incidentally Tamarack has since taken poems by Newlove and me; and i have split feelings abt the latter. I mean the money and nice typography and stuff in Tamarack will be soul gripping, but i feel over my shoulder as if either I have been taken in, or I have taken in a friend. I dont know. What happened is that Colombine wanted to publish me and Weaver sd over his dead body, wch is abt what is happening; JRC sneaking the poems in via his Ryerson desk. Incidentally, I hope M&S does you in 1964., otherwise a shame at this time of yr great productivity. I've been telling all about it here.There is, as you can imagine, much to tell of here, so moch that I wont try to say it, except to tell you that en camera Ginsberg fixt me about getting too wound up solidifying my form, and I am busting loose in a kind of dream mystic thing, which you might or might not appreciate. I feel that the arty discipline i have been giving myself last 3 yrs was much needed, but now that i have straightened myself that way, I will go into new areas. Anyway, things are in fool swing here, and Carol Berge is staying with us, a very good poet and people, and I'm sure you've seen her work, despite yr Upper Canada isolation.Angela got a job, so we are in surviving financial condition at last, tho we will have to borrow loot to get to Calgary. Can you imagine? Calgary! Achially, I am looking forward to the quasi isolation. I am going to try like hell to make a mag there, trying to raise backing in various places, and trying not to get committed to publishing sonnets by local professors and club women.Could you give me Acorn's address? I'd like to write him some more. Did you see my review in Canforum?All kinda cats coming in, and I want to get this to you; will write later, please write soon, we'll be here till Aug 17.Best,
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George BoweringApt 2, 1719 Yew Vancouver 9, B.C.PHYLLIS WEBBYou know so much and are a girl yetyour portrait in a gallery European, far-flunglonely on tripsand scholarships you letyour long hair down in the corners of partiesmaking books in little pieces a word at a timea sound touching another tentatively, the way a girltouches a puppy in a box eyes alive for sudden movementand leans back-therein that moment you are
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- if -3. "The Sick Rose"O rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm That flies in the night,In the howling storm,Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy,And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy,* * * * 4. "Ah! Sun-Flower"Ah, Sun-flower! weary of time,Who countest the steps of the Sun, Seeking after that sweet golden climeWhere the traveller's journey is done:Where the Youth pined away with desire, And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow Arise from their graves, and aspire Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.* * * *5. "Infant Sorrow"My mother groan'd! my father wept.Into the dangerous world I leapt: Helpless, naked, piping loud:Like a fiend hid in a cloud.Struggling in my father’s hands, Striving against my swadling bands, Bound and weary I thought best To sulk upon my mother's breast.* * * *
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George Bowering CalgaryCOLD SPELLSnow! Snow!all over the city, blowing between buildings, down streets, up skirts, between legs,encases my chest in cold grab fingers at my heart between my legs up my ankles---Memory mornings: brushing snow off the car seven-thirty in the morning no wind, thirty below zero, ha-ha!Snow! lying stillwaiting boot clomp & tire squashlike they say Virgin Know Pure as the driven snowEarly morning snow shoveller I am virginity-taker, deflowering ogreviolation animal of wet gloves frozen nostril sniffer snow-squashersqueek-squeek of boots on snow—Stay out long enough& it needles in to your gutssnow sifting in therebetween liver & kidneys, lung & spleenfreezing synapses, diluting bloodleaving water-blood corpses under snow-humps!Snow blowing on windshields blizzard road, main artery of the city frozen solid, cars still in ice disbelief icicles on the ends of policeman nosesdirecting traffic red green red green no one moves,dogs frozen with legs up caught in the act of pissing supported on yellow pillars of ice
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The northern lights frozen stiff, heavy,fall in great crashes across Alberta,flattening cities, making wierd green mountain ranges-The whole air frozen solidThe world a ball of ice. . .A m andont give a damn---if the sun's shining a little.Nov 23/63
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George Bowering Ste 2127 Thirteenth Ave, NE Calgary, AlbertaNov 24/63Dear Al-Where the hell are yous? I'm sending this to Ameliasburg in hope of its reaching you somewhere, ocean or tundra. What happed in Vancouver? What of huge novel? What of poems? Job? You? Whatr you doing. I8m freezing my balls off in Calgary, thirty below at night, testament of cold poems to record try time here, Jamie Reid giving me hell for mere doing that instead of writing guts, and I believing him, very discouraged abt my poetry at the time. Maybe I'll quit before my first book comes out===I can see you shaking yr head, ok I know it, I wont. But detrioration is awful too.Trip to Arizona was a gas, 90 degrees there, then cming back here to chill. Arizona desert is great, cactus sand greasewood cholla, you kno I cd live there happily not needing ocean, but drasticked by cold & snow here, tho I livd in Manitoba 3 yrs.Birney, Souster, Mandel, Layton all coming out with books next yr too, I sent ms to Rye-rson but they sd we dont want the fuckin thing, and are gonna publish Mandel. Yech! Birney reports that Layton wants to call his next vol POEMS IN BAD TASTE, wch wd bring us to the lag end of a cycle, I foreshadow.Didnt Newlove come off well in POETRY 64---I think he is doing goodthings, and living the way Acorn does, like a poet, not like a fuckin prof writing odd notes like me. I swear I have to stick with this + pay off lots of thousands of dollars, god give me slightest imaginatin and talent to keep myself till I can getout of this mess. I really hate it, esp. in this cowtown—-no bkstores, no poets, no one inEng. faculty who has read poetry, no one tt talk to except in lettrs, no news of things. When is EVIDENCE, for eg. going to come out? Latest MOUNTAIN from McFadden & it is bad news.Kearns also very depresst teaching in Vancouver. Reid has correct idea working in bkstore in Van, says he feels better abt self than ever before, this also due partly to halluciogen-analysis theraphy.Wah in Albuquerque getting ready to produce mimeomag calld SUM; Davey in Victoria, had recent poetry reading in Montreal, visiting & partym I hear with Everson, Dudek, Angel, etcs all there. TISH promising many things, no sign of coming out.
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Meanwhile I keep writing and screwing, turning out I dent know what kinds of writings, lately confessional stories & odd dull political piece, influence of watching Berton on tv. I read all the magazines from TIME to ESQUIRE, and waste further time, thoI have stopt listening to CBC except on car radio. TV hardly ever on except for sports events and president slayings.Please write and tell us yr plans, doimgs, send us yr poems.Thrive,& Angela

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