A pioneer of sound, visual, and performance poetry, bill bissett composes his poems as scripts for pure performance and has consistently since the 1960s worked to extend the boundaries of language and visual image, honing a synthesis of the two in the medium of concrete poetry. bissett’s latest collection since the monumental breth (Talonbooks, 2019), its th sailors life / still in treatment is, using the poet’s own words, “an epik poetik novel uv langwage n speech” confronting “thos controlling effekts on us” and about “acceptans uv loss greef separaysyuns charaktrs in serch uv self liberaysyun n societal equalitee n all th forces against that path.” Eschewing the artificial hierarchies of meaning and the privileging of things (“proper” nouns) over actions imposed on language by capital letters; the metric limitations imposed on the possibilities of expression by punctuation; and the illusion of formal transparency imposed on the written word by standard (rather than phonetic) spelling, bissett’s expressive assemblages in this collection are “like walking thru sum fne lines.” The poems in this collection are coupled with stunning illustrations by the author.

breth presents both new and selected poems from legendary Canadian sound, visual, and performance poet bill bissett. bissett’s innovations have shaped poetry, music, painting, and publishing and have stimulated, provoked, influenced, shocked, and delighted audiences for half a century. This new collection, bissett writes,

“shows sew manee threds thru poetree n langwage btween n thru lyrik sound song vizual narrativ non narrativ his her storikal naytur humour sexual romantik politikul metaphysikal spiritual fuseyun th pickshur image in th lettr th shape uv th lettr in th drawing line orchestrating th needs 4 caring n heering n being with each othr all th drama uv all uv us lerning why n how creating thru art n th bizness uv life a much mor free n equitabul societee b r e t h contains manee storeez uv being ther n getting ther n uv th love uv art n each othr th sharing times n th losses in our journeez 2 b helping each othr n th planet erth nobody owns n thru art manee ways uv lifting ourselvs with kleen watr erth fire n air n love ths b r e t h is abt thees adventurs uv sharing physical being n love spiritual n touching th manee ways art poetree can take us byond th gift n prison uv self in2 th manee worlds in n uv ths beautiful galaxee n ourselvs uttring th sounds in th images n lettrs n lettrs 2 manee passing comets n ourselvs spin th reel dreem xchanging love 4 love our manee selvs on fire our gifts 2 each othr n ourselvs that evreewun has enuff ths time uv th sun n th lite in th dark touch th sun in time with joy n sorrow lerning n unlerning langwage n poetree can show we join with ourselvs n each other.”

This volume, the largest in bill bissett’s publication history, includes more than a hundred illustrations and visual poems, many of them appearing in print for the first time, as well as a foreword by fellow poet Tim Atkins (author of Folklore and On Fathers < On Daughtyrs), a bibliographical “a r c h i v e,” and an index of poem titles.

A pioneer of sound, visual, and performance poetry, bill bissett composes his poems as scripts for pure performance and has consistently since the 1960s worked to extend the boundaries of language and visual image, honing a synthesis of the two in the medium of concrete poetry. bissett’s latest collection since the monumental breth (Talonbooks, 2019), its th sailors life / still in treatment is, using the poet’s own words, “an epik poetik novel uv langwage n speech” confronting “thos controlling effekts on us” and about “acceptans uv loss greef separaysyuns charaktrs in serch uv self liberaysyun n societal equalitee n all th forces against that path.” Eschewing the artificial hierarchies of meaning and the privileging of things (“proper” nouns) over actions imposed on language by capital letters; the metric limitations imposed on the possibilities of expression by punctuation; and the illusion of formal transparency imposed on the written word by standard (rather than phonetic) spelling, bissett’s expressive assemblages in this collection are “like walking thru sum fne lines.” The poems in this collection are coupled with stunning illustrations by the author.

breth presents both new and selected poems from legendary Canadian sound, visual, and performance poet bill bissett. bissett’s innovations have shaped poetry, music, painting, and publishing and have stimulated, provoked, influenced, shocked, and delighted audiences for half a century. This new collection, bissett writes,

“shows sew manee threds thru poetree n langwage btween n thru lyrik sound song vizual narrativ non narrativ his her storikal naytur humour sexual romantik politikul metaphysikal spiritual fuseyun th pickshur image in th lettr th shape uv th lettr in th drawing line orchestrating th needs 4 caring n heering n being with each othr all th drama uv all uv us lerning why n how creating thru art n th bizness uv life a much mor free n equitabul societee b r e t h contains manee storeez uv being ther n getting ther n uv th love uv art n each othr th sharing times n th losses in our journeez 2 b helping each othr n th planet erth nobody owns n thru art manee ways uv lifting ourselvs with kleen watr erth fire n air n love ths b r e t h is abt thees adventurs uv sharing physical being n love spiritual n touching th manee ways art poetree can take us byond th gift n prison uv self in2 th manee worlds in n uv ths beautiful galaxee n ourselvs uttring th sounds in th images n lettrs n lettrs 2 manee passing comets n ourselvs spin th reel dreem xchanging love 4 love our manee selvs on fire our gifts 2 each othr n ourselvs that evreewun has enuff ths time uv th sun n th lite in th dark touch th sun in time with joy n sorrow lerning n unlerning langwage n poetree can show we join with ourselvs n each other.”

This volume, the largest in bill bissett’s publication history, includes more than a hundred illustrations and visual poems, many of them appearing in print for the first time, as well as a foreword by fellow poet Tim Atkins (author of Folklore and On Fathers < On Daughtyrs), a bibliographical “a r c h i v e,” and an index of poem titles.