Thursday, December 31, 2009

A deleuzian reading of bpNichol's long poem The Martyrology: Books 1 & 2
    

     All the beloved lie
In the perpetual savagery of graves.
                           (James Wright)

Book 2 of The Martyrology (cont'd)


from "Book of Common Prayer": "saint of no-names" and page 26 from Chapter 2, "1914: One or Several Wolves?" (A Thousand Plateaus)

"saint of no-names "

_____________________

(6) The heart is a rhizome
     Stars, dragons & tables are possible plateaus.
     Saint reat is a BwO




bp and reat sit like ghosts at the poet's table still unwell, alone:
     can't return again to listen, can you?

makar of shiny-spined fable of "wails", heart linked to stars, and
     between dragons & you next nova sun

even as it breaks down, stars saints and friends in mid-November,
     "our energy lives on"

a line at a time souls like bp's look across a magic valley and
     won't quit in face of lies—

without noisy dreams the impulse to go on is ah! lovely and long,
     prince of flows

2 comments:

Clifford Duffy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Conrad DiDiodato said...

Clifford,

I'm in two minds about bp: bad writing model or tragic lyricist caught up in postmodern age of multiple stories?

Deleuze, at least, helped me to read one of them.