TOP107-DES104
This Old Poem #107:
bill bissett’s pavlovs dog
1
Copyright © by
Dan Schneider, 3/4/05
bill bissett is 1 of those poets that is not really easy to define. Is he
a great poet? No. Is he an innovative poet? No- not in light of antecedents like
e.e. cummings & fellow Canadian poet Wilfred Watson. That said, he has been
1 of the best humorist- aka ‘light’ poets to emerge in the late 20th
Centrury.
Born on November 23rd, 1939 bb has been 1 of Canada’s most
prolific poets in the late 20th Century. Of course, the vast majority
of his work is crap, as 1 might be able to squeeze just 3 or 4 good books worth
of poetry from the 60. He’s also, like cummings, known as a painter, as well
as a musician. He was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, & educated at Dalhousie
and the University of British Columbia (1963-65), but dropped out of both. In
1958 he moved to Vancouver, B.C. & started a small radical press. He also
ensconced himself in his nation’s Academia- he was a writer in residence at
Western University, conducted workshops across Canada from British Columbia to the Maritime
Provinces. Through his career bb has de-emphasized poetry as a written
construct, preferring to throw his lot in with performance poets. Of course,
this has allowed him to cavalierly disclaim his written word weaknesses. His
credo has been to ‘lift the poem off the page into sound or even into some
happening that attempts the total involvement of the senses’. Such
theoretical mumbo jumbo has little to do with poetry, but shows bb’s actual
lack of innovative thought in approaching art.
However, he has greatly benefited his own poetic reputation by being
subject to unfair criticisms from ensconsed elitists who, rather than attack
some manifest flaws in his poesy, have assailed him for vulgarisms, sexuality,
& radical politics. His website is www.unb.ca/qwerte/bissett/first.html.
A typical example of the great majority of poems bb has written can be found in this poem:
it usd 2 b
4
konrad white n ken thomsod
yu cud get sum toilet papr
nd a newspapr both 4
a dollr fiftee
now yu cant yu gotta
make a chois
In a sense, this is truly not a poem, merely a statement on a small ‘life situation’. Compare this to the average William Carlos Williams or e.e. cummings poem of the same length. WCW’s poem would probably have at least 1 interesting turn or phrase while eec’s poem would at least have a great musicality to it. So, while structurally the poem looks like theirs from the outside it is not- it is prose broken in to lines, & further masked by the unusual spelling & typography. In its attempt at humor his work has more in kind, spiritually with his American contemporary Richard Brautigan- save that RB had a far greater wit. Lacking the typography the typical RB poem of this length would have had a Henny Youngman-type punch line to follow this last line. Whereas an RB poem would have the full ‘ba-dum-bum!’ the typical bb poem only has the ‘ba-dum- ’.
Let’s gander at a longer poem:
a violent prson
is marreed 2 a changling
th changling can adapt
can sumtimez radikalee b
on her his gud side evreethings
going swimminglee sumtimez
get shit whn he she runs out
uv prsonas masks goez 2
th closet n thers nothing
hanging ther can b myself he
she thinks thn thats th feer
that th punishment will cum
fr sure if he she cant leev her
him self fast enuff breeth b
call her him n start packing
him her self is alredee enuff
is alredee fine is alredee all ther
can go now can b now she he is
sew flexibul now who 2 trust or
2 find discovr
a mountin sliding in2 th sand
sumwun who wud stay yu cud
with hold n they cud find yu they
wudint leev n yu wud bcum all
ther with them not that
thers anee all ther
th changling writes lettrs 2 her him
selvs in th ambr waves n touchinglee
with love keeps th nite
Aside from the last line, is there a truly poetic moment in this poem? No. Granted, compared to a Wilfred Watson bb has not gone over the cliff into poetic cryptography, but he’s close. What does this poem really say that is not learnt from any article on domestic violence? More importantly, where is the art?
On to the poem in question:
pavlovs dog 1
wud yu rathr onlee b
ths happee thn fullee
trusting agen n gettin
whackd whappd wun
mor time as yu cirkul th
reel prize yr own focus
on yrself innr serenitee
yr love happee being
without goal attainment
alredee is not self having
bells ar ringing great smells
b careful sumthing mite
not work having can b valu
n thers no food nun not
dont care abt things yu have
no powr ovr agen n get reelee
miserabul sew thers a
ringing
sum wundrful perfumeree from
th larkspur hydrangea roses n
plums pears n a kleer lake neer
by valu can protekt its virtual
realitee sumwun may honor
theyr agreement with yu if they
dont sum thing els may still
cum up gud
happeeness is
sew tempting yu
dont want 2 fall apart if yu dont
get it meditating tails or heds
oftn its not binaree its in th 7th
or third opsyun th magik resides
wait 4 it hungree awkward re
wired agilitee taking yr time
fr sure but redee 2 leep
Ok, let’s look at it again. Where is the poetry? Perhaps only in
the last line. Like most of bb’s oeuvre this poem is simply a banal thought
broken into lines, & then skewed by typography. But, why is this so gripping
to him?
Let’s redo the poem by trimming it & then fitting the remaining
pieces together so that there is at least a little give & play between the
images. I won’t even dare to undo the typography for, why bother? It won’t
make that much of an improvement even if implemented.
pavlovs dog 1
wud yu rathr onlee b
yr own focus yr love
without goal attainment
miserabul larkspur hydrangea
roses n plums pears n a kleer lake
happeeness is sew tempting
oftn its not binaree th magik
resides hungree awkward
agilitee yr time redee 2 leep
The poem has been trimmed to 3 tercets & the title now is not merely
a recap of the poem’s sentiment, but actively tugs against it. Roteness is
portrayed in the 1st stanza as the cause of the query? Stanza 2 is a
sort of answerless answer- the proof against it is out there, in the pudding of
life, so to speak. Then Stanza 3 tries to define its opposite, ending with the
unexpected ready to spring upon it. In 3 stanzas we have the classic premise,
counter-premise, & summary/reaction formula, yet each of those 3 parts is a
bit different from their classic presentation. With just a little tweaking
I’ve shown that bb’s forced diction, used mainly as a gag to separate
himself from other poetasters, could have been deployed far more effectively
within each poem. That he did not do so is testament to his true intent as a
‘poet’- not to write great poems but to make a ‘name’ for himself as a
radical, a ‘good man’, & a true believer in the art is about social
change movement. That’s why he has his own TOP, though.
Final Score: (1-100):
bill bissett’s pavlovs dog
1: 45
TOP’s
pavlovs dog 1: 70
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