In England Now That Spring: Polaroid poems, found texts, visions & collaborations, records of a journey thru Scotland & England May 1978

by Steve McCaffery

Assassins & equine gangslayers of poetry & performance, Nichol & mccaffery ambushed the 11th International Sound Poetry festival catalogue; and both have exposed extensively in weighty tomes and fishing tackle. Nichol's writing has been called 'the biggest ball of wax in Canadian harness racing today' by Pete Zlotnik in Mechanics U.K. while mccaffery has been referred to as 'one of the most ambiguous penguins in northern vegetation' (Julie Wawa, editor, Canadian Tubers). IN ENGLAND NOW THAT SPRING is a successful absinthe between the two elderberry and translated certain to enchant even the most ditsinguished omission.

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 16, 1993

About the author

Steve McCaffery is the author of over twenty-five books of poetry and criticism. He has twice been awarded the Gertrude Stein Award for innovative poetry and twice shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award. His poems have been published in more than a dozen countries. A long-time resident of Toronto, he is currently the David Gray Professor of Poetry and Letters, University at Buffalo.

Reviews

[M.W.P.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I

A STATE OF MIND:

an english journal may 1978

steve mccaffery

*

BY THE GHYLL AT AMBLESIDE


Ghyll:

n. Respiratory organ(s) of narrow mountain torrent;
hence fish-torrent below person's jaws & ears; vertical
radiating plates on underside of ravine; deep usu.
wooded mushroom &c.

thought so many branches
roots to this place

a traveller
"returned for the first time seeing all of this"

the news of hills near chaffinch
inch from the foot that carried him on Broughton Moor
to the forest clearing thought distilling thot
until the image rests in syntax
fixed pen of a place

a finished poem
a flown bird

*

WORDSWORTH: A Performance Transform


Enter the cottage in mid-May.

Go out through the back door into the garden.

For each daffodil you find, pluck it & replace it with
its dictionary definition.

Daffodil:

"The same as Affodill; the genus Ashphodelus
The genus Narcissus, of which it is the common
English name in the Catalogue of Gerarde's Garden
1599, where twelve Daffodils or Narcissuses are
distinguished, the White Daffodil being the common
White Narcissus, or Poet's Lily."

*

AN AMBLESIDE EVENT


Take a poem beginning with the line:

"in a dream beginning with the thought of skirts".

Double it, divide its double by five releasing all the letters
from their word structures.

Print this in red on cream paper and release the whole thing
into a lake.

*

SOUND GRAPH: Ambleside 7.15 p.m.


Mostly bird song.
Occasional passing car.
One passing airplane.

In frequent human voice.

Hot fat in a pan.

*

POSITION OF SHEEP I

 sheep

 sheep

 sheep

 sheep

 sheep lamb

 sheep

sheep

 sheep

*

POSITION OF SHEEP II

 sheep

 lamb

 sheep

 sheep

sheep

 sheep

 sheep

 lamb

 sheep

*

FROM: Personal Talk


not personal
not neighbours not withering out
not chalk

not not in discourse
not emotion

not square
not without presence
not silence

(to aim all forms to floors . . . .)

not cottage-chance
not

undersong

*

LINES WRITTEN IN EARLY SPRING

Link twigs to air

Link air to notes

Link notes to soul

Link soul to grove

Link grove to mood

Link mood to periwinkle

Link periwinkle to Nature

Link Nature to belief

Link belief to primrose

Link primrose to tufts

Link tufts to motion

Link motion to pleasure

...

*

NUTTING: A Performance Event extracted from Wordsworth's "The Recluse"


1. Find a dear nook unvisited.
2. Locate clusters.
3. Define clusters as a virgin scene.
4. Drag both the branch and the bough to earth.
5. Remain tempted.
6. Ravage mercilessly.
7. Deform.
8. Sully.
9. Patiently give up.

*

II

IN ENGLAND AND NOW THAT SPRING

collaborations in england & scotland

may 1978

steve mccaffery & bpNichol

*

maintains as
a voice of
possibility
 unchanging streams
wearing deeper into the surface of this place
until it is a cave the ground encloses
closure mid an opening
 until the thot frames the process
so completely the two become inseparable
a circle & circle intersecting
another shape emerging thru the trees
as a handful of flowers discarded or
 the distant songs of invisible birds
surrounded by these walls of music & of noise
 shift even as you pass thru them
defining new corridors
in a game called living
a name of
things

*





*

III

THE WORLD BEYOND:

poems given & found in England

may 1978

bpNichol

*

FOUND: VISION

And this is
the rush of water
the booming of the mill
a dreamy deafness
from the world beyond.

*

IN LAKELAND


I


1

eight Lakeland forests
at the centre of High Furness

bobbins charoal potash
dyes brushes clogs
baskets of all kinds

a carefully planned scheme

walking and fishing

a wild life


2

latch
spruce
and other conifers

two hundred years ago -
oak, ash, birch, hazel, yew and alder
cut close to the ground
harvested every twelve to fifteen years
families to live in the woods with them

a beehive of thin timber
about four feet long


3

an inseparable companion

grammar


4

sheep farms
common pastures

iron forges
bloomeries

woodland
industries

copper mines
slate quarries

corn mills
fishing rights

clearly revealed


5

the mouth of the Deep level

as near as we may safely come to
the actual


6

no noteworthy events
no particularly significant records 
no family or personality

the upheaval
the simplicity


7

pure white
strong yellow
blue woad
famous green

in the dark and only too familiar house place
the days of the spinning


8

the ancient skills of the river

one hundred years
3,000,000 cubic yards


9

radically changed the landscape
creating that harmony
wherever we turn
the name thing still survives

committed to memory and handed on by word of mouth
the extent of the power of the Thing
in this simple open air


10

circles

circles

cirles

Spring and Autumn Equinoxes
Midsummer and Midwinter Solstices

assembled and arranged
in the order in which we see them
who put them there


11

shape

faith

the violence of the mob
the rude multitude

angry hostility
neglect and decay
over the gardens where people came from


12

the tree stem
wrought
sliced into squares
baked,
dry as a brown crust,
bored with a round hole in the middle
glued thus drying
a little smaller at each end
quicker than the eye can follow


II


1

more glass than wall
today was created
surmised
the probably origin of the place-name itself


2

Ravenglass Glannaventa
Winchester Venta Belgarum
Norwich Venta Icenorum

spirit of land at the mouths of the rivers
the town by the bank
destroyed by the construction of the railway
buried under a plantation of woodland


3

It wore horns or wool, and travelled on the hoof

bells
song
story

enshrouded in the mystery which surrounds
who have passed silently
left so little

ruin or decay

simplicity


4

an enchanted fortress in the air
hear the old proud Romans moving

(the hot room
(the warm room)
(the cold room)

nothern Britain to the valley of the Nile


5

place-named
language
landscape

astonishing

good overcoming evil

remarkable

the house of the dead
two armies facing each other

a fascinating story


6

the simple needs of the practical farmer
wealth was modest indeed

real meaning in this part of the country

whisperings,
the faint rumour of a former life,
echoing and
shadowy


7

twilight descends
on the history of Cumbria

darkness

legend, fold lore, mystery and magic
mighty heathen gods and their awe inspiring feats
miracle-working saints
embroidered by time and repetition

the short-lived kingdom of Rheged
the larger kingdom of Strathclyde

its population of human sould
a flock of more than 30,000 sheep


8

the Keswick pencil factories
fourteen in 1847
the most prominent of them
Greta Pencil Works and
Black Lead Mills.
8,000 and 10,000 Cumberland pencils a day
ceased in 1906
forty years after the miners themselves
abandoned Seathwaite to 
the sheep and
tourists


III


1

the River Eamont
the River Eden
Dacre Beck and
the River Lowther

throughout the known history of mankind
like a magnet
so much of man's early history is to be found in so small a space

feasting, animal bones,
remains of querns & pottery
permanent temples
a class of priests to supervise them

this accumulation of evidence
whose precise nature and significance
we can only begin to 
imagine


2

first or second century B.C.
a slow movement into the Eden Valley
long deserted
almost absorbed
into the grass and
heather.


3

another race of men
throught the thick oakwoods
clothed the valleys
the lower sloped of the fell
against the base of the fine crags
the waters of old Mosedale Lake
must have washed
only two cairns to remind us of man's presence
beneath the grass and heather
south, east, and west
no evidence to support it


4

confluence of the river
north, east, south and west converge
natural highways throughout historical time

under internal strains and externals pressures
the brunt of the destruction
a strange silence
enjoyed a last moment of glory

the decaying stones
the overgrown foundations
pattern of ancient fields
a human community
endured for a hundred generations


5

the familiar Bode
definition
a fairly wide Debateable Land

never successfully rounded off,
it simply faded away
a very faire and Ancient fabrike


6

remote from the turmoil of the world
impressed with the peace and quiet they found there


7

the majestic and wildness of the native forest
vast territories in Cumberland and Westmoreland
excavations at Pompeii and Herculanuem
an ancient Italian city or an 18th century English town

unplanned simplicity
the characteristic charm of
the English


8

spoil heaps
water races

crushing and smelting mills

pastoral charms
wooden glades

familiar and traditional crafts in Cumbria


9

54 feet
a century of controversy

warnings
prosecution

1,700 million gallons
96 miles acqueduct
twenty inches in every mile

the balancing reservoirs

the settling pools


IV (for Thomas A. Clark)


1

the impression of a structure casually thrown together
dependent on imaginative improvisation
the knowledge which only experience can bring


2

an interesting continuity in the general plan
a continuity which may be traced back
frowned upon by Wordsworth as vulgar and intrusive


3

the impact of
significant detail
quite different in conception from
the poet who
learned to look on nature
and whose thoughts were concerned
Not with the mean and vulgar works of men


4

the unique atmosphere of a working
the unceasing rhythmic cadence
the measured, purposeful activities of
the pages Literature
often combined a variety of functions at one and the same time
a situation scarcely to be understood

it is only through the efforts of
a small number of individuals that
we may recapture something of the poetry


5

a brief account
setting out spiritual advice and guidance
in a practical but very general way
in a manner similar to
festivals of fine music


6

gossip and unaccustomed company

remembered

forgotten


7

new discoveries will be made
could, in short, transform the life of man on earth
the long story of human achievement


8

the central theme
the efforts of ordinary men & women
to create a living culture

Kurt Schwitters
Barbara Hepsworth
Hans Arp

the blacksmith
the wheelwright
the stone waller

it is one their shoulders that we stand


9

a century and a half of Wordsworth
viewpoints are swarming like anthills

quiet

enable the concept
to become a living reality