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EARLE BIRNEY: a Tribute

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EARLE BIRNEY: a Tribute jihffcr<& EARLE BIRNEY: A Tribute EARLE BIRNEY: A Tribute EDITED BY Sioux Browning and Melanie J. Little COMPILED BY Chad Norman PRODUCTION AND DESIGN BY Sioux Browning COVER AND INTERIOR ILLUSTRATIONS BY Heather Spears PRINTED BY OK Graphics Produced in cooperation with PRISM international. Contents Copyright © 1998 PRISM international for the authors. Net proceeds from the sale of this book will go towards the annual PRISM international Earle Birney Prize for Poetry. PRISM international, a magazine of contemporary writing, is pub­ lished four times per year by the Creative Writing Program at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1. ISSN 0032.8790 TABLE OF CONTENTS bill bissett life is like a gypsy violin regardless 5 Al Purdy Birney: Dean of Canadian Poets 7 D. G. Jones For Earle Birney 15 Phil Thomas Authors Anonymous 16 Peter Trower Toronto the Moist 18 Janis Rapoport A Personal Memory 19 Louis Dudek from Notebook 1964-1978 22 I.B.Iskov When He Died, He Took One Last Poem With Him 24 Jacob Zilber A Little Shelter 25 Robert Sward The Generous and Humane Voice 27 Jan de Bruyn For My Former Friend and Colleague 30 Hilda Thomas To A Wild Beard 31 Earle Birney A Wild Beard Replies 33 Peter Trower Journeyman 34 Alison Acker Remembering Earle 35 Doug Lochhead An Acquaintance Remembers 38 Chad Norman The Blackened Spine 41 Glen Sorestad Suitcases of Poetry 44 Georgejohnston A Few Personal Notes 45 Fred Candelaria Amazing Labyrinth 47 Wayson Choy Nothing Would Be The Same Again 48 Linda Rogers The Perfect Consonant Rhyme 50 Wail an Low Once High On A Hill 52 Pirn wi**"* ik M m A A * i RISM international POETRY PRiZE EARLE BIRNEY PRIZE FOR POETRY RISM international will enter its fortieth year in 1999. Over the years it has had the opportunity to publish work by some Pof the world's best writers and to introduce many promising newcomers to the literary scene. Earle Birney was instrumental in making PRISM what it is today. Through his initiative, the magazine, which had been targeted largely at west coast readers, began to reach an international audience; likewise, it began to bring international writers to a Canadian audience, while still maintaining its strong west coast voice. Birney also affiliated PRISM with the newly formed Creative Writing department at the University of British Columbia, where it found a home. In 1997, to commemorate Birney's involvement with the magazine, PRISM international launched the Earle Birney Prize for Poetry. The prize, which is chosen by the editor or editors, is worth $500 and is awarded annually for the best poem or group of poems in the volume. The inaugural prize was given to Montreal poet Bruce Taylor. The second winner will be announced in July, 1998. PRISM intends the prize to reward those qualities which also distinguished Birney's poetry: strong voice, a sense of adventure and newness, and attention to craft. The prize is open to all poets published in PRISM, regardless of their nationality or chosen poetic form. Sioux Browning and Melanie J. Little, Editors of PRISM international bill bissett • s 1 tup * »JP kJ ^o^ *»- l~ LIFE IS LIKE A GYPSEE VIOLIN REGARDLESS earle birney as well as being a great poet a wundrful prson n a higlee esteemd n deeplee appresiatid fello traveller comet reelee star burst grappling demons cumming up with offrings 4 us all 2 mingul with muse upon n b veree grateful 4 in hi school we studied david great pome bankok boy his naytur pome abt vankouvr manee places his politikul poetree he knew sew much 2 detail 2 elusidate his Chaucerian contemp oraree premises his veree post modern langwages vizuals his love poetree his adventurs n teechings n finalee his inkredibul love poetree 2 wailan editid by al purdy inkredibul in that th marriage uv form n kon tent is totalee seemless n offrs 2 th reedr th heart beet uv all our great loves earle birney also veree kind beekon n veree encouraging 2 beginning poets a trust we all want 2 dew with each othr regardless uv anee age or whatevr its sew hard alredee we try 2 b ther 4 each othr he was great at that ovrcumming th perils uv iso laysun not eezee th time 2 write sew fragile n precar ious 2 find 2 b in 4 with n earle gave me a leg up whn othrwise I wud uv bin totalee on th street thru guiding me 2 purchasers arranging th sale uv mss n buying a painting from me wun uv th first i evr sold at a time whn i was living on th floor n was wun uv thos generous inkrediblee kind acts wch made all th diffrens in my life earle birney did a lot uv thos deeds 4 a great manee peopul thats not sung abt but its veree trew n its veree well known 2 me i lovd seeing earle in his last yeers in ths bardo as earle n it was also profound 4 me n profoundlee sad he was aftr timez uv uv kourz diffikulteez bcumming mor n mor sereen n b4 he reelee stoppd talking he sd manee in spiring things 2 me n 2 manee othrs he was a reel prson no pretens it was sew wundrful 2 b on th same bill with him eye remembr konvokaysyun hall me n thorn gunn n earle birney n earle evoked in a naytur sound pome th tundra n th candian shield th muskkeg n th sonorous sun eye askd earle with all th pain n loss heer whats ths life bizness all abt n he sd no wun knows i askd dew yu think theyul evr tell us not likely he sd eye miss earle n hope hes fine i know he is Al Purdv BIRNEY: DEAN OF CANADIAN POETS I've had enough of this inert Ontario, this eunuch sea And pastured fenced nonentity I'm off to where a seafresh sun Slants golden warmth at dawn across Dwarfed Jurassic woods of moss And there I'll get myself a shack With roof of shakes, and in I'll pack With beans and fishing hooks and whiskey, And when I'm getting close to famine I'll turn to dewberries and salmon And not until it rains ten weeks Will I slosh back through racing creeks And let a train bear back to Pluto, Campus tea and weekly blizzard, My pacific heart and gizzard. Though winter's sure, and war, or lectures To eastern young who've only books To tell them how a mountain looks. Or what is poverty and passion, I'll steal to Eagle Island first And slake my salt Columbian thirst. - Beginning and ending of Birney's "Eagle Island' he poem races ahead like a swift river; it's akin to doggerel; its rhyme-sounds bear down on your ears like flapping wings; Tit's kinda like Alexander Pope, except that it's good- humoured and drags the reader inside its drumming heartbeat. An early poem, Bin didn't include it in some of his collections, only in the large Collect. I suspect he didn't have a high opinion of it; but the poem is so closely related to Birney's own character that I find it irresistible. Earle Birney. Tall, thin and lanky, red-haired when young; bal­ ding and bushy-bearded when old; irascible and touchy as a tormented pit bull sometimes; generous and attractive and human as anyone I've ever met at other times. Some would say those traits are paradoxical, but they are not. Genus homo wraps up everything inside his two-pound (more or less) brain; and all of us share with Earle Birney the same things that make us human. They also make us fallible and infallible, vulnerable and invulnerable, both noble and ignoble. I have seen all of these things in Earle, these traits and qualities of self that I possess myself; that sometimes I deny irritably, but which I acknowledge here without a trace of reticence or shame. I've known Earle Birney since the early 1950s, more than forty years. I scraped acquaintance by sending a rather insulting letter to him in Vancouver, then met him (and was told by a kind friend that I "suckholed" to him). Over the years I've probably been as close to him as anyone of the male gender. He was a friend. Earle had a heart attack in March, 1987, suffered brain damage and lost all memory of the past. He was in and out of hospital until he died in September, 1995. Since the publication oiDavid in 1942, Birney has achieved very large stature in Canada. He won the Governor General's award for poetry twice, as well as other assorted medals and awards. In the eyes of the poetry-reading public, Birney and E.J. Pratt came to mind first when the word "poet" occurred to anyone during post-prandial brandy. (Irving Layton was a bit after those two.) And Earle wrote letters. His correspondence was enormous. Quite literally, he seemed to know everyone. And he had friends all across the world, both male and female; friendships that were never allowed to die. And Earle was a lover of women; he liked women for themselves, for their conversation and company; and he liked them in bed. One could say, entirely without irony, that he had "a genius for friendship." Earle Birney's character was restless and impatient: he wanted to be off without delay wherever he was going.
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