masks by victor coleman book preview

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MASKS VICTOR COLEMAN B L A Z E V O X [ B O O K S ] Buffalo, New York

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Victor Coleman has played with and explored the subtleties of Oulipian procedures for many years, bringing his own imagination and impeccable ear to the revivifying possibilities arrangement offers poetry in lieu of the predictable outpourings of “identity” in the Commercial Poetry Product. With Masks he has reached a point that leaves you breathless in the face of mastery. These Masks confront us with the reality of language’s creative production, pushing identity aside in a celebration of composition – dare I say -- as explanation. Joy, he writes, “must have been / of a different nature / while enjoying the beauty / of the clear blue moon / clothed in old pillars / with awe-inspiring light.” Here, old pillars shine again in the light of the blue moon, and joy dances among them, weaving delightful masks out of the language that composes us all.—Michael BoughnVictor Coleman was born in 1944 in Toronto. His workload included being a mailroom and copy clerk (where the night editors of the Toronto Star mocked him for reading Joyce and Olson), a virtual apprenticeship in book design and the business of publishing at Oxford University Press, linotype operator with Coach House Printing Co. and simultaneously Coach House Press`s editor in chief (from 1966-1975). He was Executive Director of A Space and publicist/programmer for The Music Gallery in Toronto. Between 1999 and 2004 he was the text editor for the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art’s Canadian Art Database (www.ccca.ca). He taught CanLit and Creative Writing for the Toronto District School Board and at York and Queen’s Universities. He has received grants from all three levels of arts councils, and in 2001 was given the Harbourfront International Writers’ Festival Prize. In 1996, he and Stan Bevington started up Coach House Books and www.chbooks.com, the world’s first simultaneous print and online publishing venture. Over the years he has broken bread, smoked dope and otherwise hung out with such significant contemporaries as bpNichol, Milton Acorn, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Raymond Souster, Al Purdy, Gerry Gilbert, Daphne Marlatt, George Bowering, Fred Wah, Robert Creeley, Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Edward Dorn, joel oppenheimer, Paul Blackburn, Philip Whalen, Robert Kelly, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William S. Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Stephen Rodefer, Philip Whalen, John Wieners, Jonathan Williams, Diane di Prima, Anne Waldman, Kathy Acker, Joanne Kyger, Ted Berrigan, Barbara Guest, Robin Blaser, Basil Bunting, Jeremy Prynne, Andrew Crozier and John Temple. He has been known to summer with his wife, Kate Van Dusen, in Rieux-Minervois, near Carcassonne, in the Languedoc region of France. Coleman’s most recent publications are Miserable Singers and ivH: an alphamath serial (both BookThug), How to Become a Good Dancer and Hard Boiled Egg Heads (both shuffaloff / Eternal Network joints), and as editor (with Michael Boughn) of Robert Duncan’s The H.D. Book (Univ. of California Press). Book Information:· Paperback: 72 pages
· Binding: Perfect-Bound
· Publisher: BlazeVOX [books] 
· ISBN: 978-1-60964-233-4$16

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MASKS

VICTOR COLEMAN

B L A Z E V O X [ B O O K S ] Buffalo, New York

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MASKS

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one Victim to symbolisms of behaviour which no one fully comprehends as if being convicted of helplessness in functionally powerful societies where an individual's ego is semi-consciously thrown back on itself demanding more and more novel affirmations of historic truancies from an official socialized self to become an obsession about the normal in art Outrun only by those taken in by the superficial rationalizations & frequent changes who reach over themselves to nullify the very purpose of bare legs on summer’s modern women Cosmetics and methods of wearing the hair with no preliminary critique is often utterly historic the charge of economic waste leveled against the public mind has little effect and no legitimized

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caprice is felt as a sort of socially unintelligible form of individual tyrannical entirety unconscious of the emphasis in such societies on the sanctity of tradition to be more strictly psychological determinants of their designs which above all must depart from a puritanical society’s growing impatience with the outward forms of sex curiosity permanently outrun by the vivid changes in discretion * two Valuable and curious were the secrets of nature and the origin of its bodies which a privileged and private man obtains for himself and his family in times of simplicity a poverty fair in its features adorned with that age full of innocence and romantic transitions as if a higher spiritual power revealed itself upon the earth’s surface

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and the richest of these principles glad to carry themselves in imagination to the years lived to return again to a life loved intensely though separated from the object of a passion’s ardour Crossed the sea with ease many strange monsters and all sorts of men with cosmic offerings an earth rich in subterraneous treasure – wild, inhospitable and immense plains – companionship takes leave the fertility of a wise old preacher’s genius shows enlightenment and wealth of age with coarse garb to conceal a beautiful form love more lasting towards the break of day with images of this fancy form as a soul grew calm in imaginings’ journey accompanied by that peculiar feeling that fills the breast upon a never to be forgotten first announcement of death our last separation will remain

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three Little crimson pyramids of seeded strawberries spilled through the perforated shell this vulgarity is the only fact in a century that cannot be explained away so let’s have coffee in the music-room My wife and I never told a man what such action really was having done it more than once This man is entitled to spill a little crimson or be called on good intentions which represent fatality the beautiful lessons of romance which first attracted me “Always remember to sob once a loved one’s distinct perfume brings subtle memories to stroke the head of a curious Java” A largely untrue story told me years ago with wild adoration content now with anyone who supposes she will someday marry a rough carter A wild adoration for you

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the dominant motive of his art something told him what was going on in town has not been there for days It must be delightful to be seen in San Francisco a city possessing all that it attracts this little crowd of shabby-looking people listening to some vulgar street music * four Old women and their daughters pressed around him with hearty curiosity They infested a lady from the capital willing to teach them the recipes for many pleasant dishes As a voyageur of wonder the enterprise of the sacred tomb to divine the Unknown exactly as the presage takes form An inhabitant of a higher world in the midst of deeply interwoven leaves which gradually open to present a beautiful flower

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in bud Point of departure: The emperor led us into the land of the morning where charming maidens appeared to us of the West – if we guide our words skilfully a beauteous captive tumult dies away The absence of its nature and effect a clear longing remains encouraged to devote himself forever to the marvel-working cross and a joyous life of field and camp They learned that His heavenly birth-place was in the power Cruelly maltreated gazing with sad countenance the evening was serene The sun longing after solitude made its decline enticed by a golden distance which stole into the wall all the coloured splendour and solitude with frequent banquets beside the tumult of war and the chase

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knew no other pastime except a brimming beaker Kindhearted ladies of the castle welcomed him the evening was serene the sun began to rock * five To vex or startle from hostility desire that is pure fear perhaps overstated After meeting strange men sometimes even after talking to women the virtue of confidence when coming to insert the rhyme having found it will be hard to convince us we have been less than a cat who eats the medicinal grass in the garden. “As I dream of eyelids that do not quiver before the bayonet: all my thoughts have eased.” Protection as adorable as those young imagined queens who have so little sleep Every ear and mind’s eye

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a voluble daredevil who goes “romancing through a romping lifetime.” The wickedest people are but bold children but one is never judged her only fault a habit excelling in the representation of women who stir pity because they need desire Romancing through her romping lifetime to the dawning of the Judgment Day and all about her certain men whose art is less opposing virtue than compensation for some great poetic lie between elaborate brightly lit buildings and sceneries appearing in a moment’s lull A fat, ruddy nude woman lying upon a Turkish carpet making matches from start to end scrupulously accurate in all their statements In his art he made known to delight his ear the lineaments of man’s flight from his blind struggle in the network *

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six He came as if invited astonished not dreaming the true festivity’s about to begin a drama daring again to look upon the unknown faces introduced as an entire company He prayed to the listener for another song from the king's chamber inquired as to his glowing cheeks hovering over the young man’s head so that his tresses swam gently down the stream His delightful astonishment increased when his mother's voice awoke in him a love of high escape from all traces of memory consecrated relics all past facts will prove a wiser future never to be forgotten The first announcement of death terrifies us with a nightly vision directly viewed as their very essence in varying

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connexions to carry a child in her arms Revealed amidst an outspread collar within which delightful astonishment his singular intent now becomes a satisfying world an inconceivably interior communion as the stream from the fountain spreads out into a single overhanging cloud a child to will the bright spark You might say this is really

a masterpiece an accident the Twenty-third Psalm a damned horse! Not the gods and goddesses the devils, bats

and sewing machines A profound angel and a sad one An excellent composition with the wings

supported by umbrella ribs and a motion

that is part of him while the rest

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stands stock still turning human

with the proper trail though not

to let it grow or add

the horsey expression without making

the animal laugh Everything with form has invisible substance

so light less than nothing but a tissue never a pile of dirt wearing or washing away

at least not in our time What’s a mountain? Deciding to obey no longer

we’ll go out and eat it will all

blow over when we draw blood Art is false religion If you want to see angels

go to the top and slap on the colour Interesting data

is labeled

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the equivalent of nothing

a fraud like stopping to strike a balance

in order to add the weight

patched up to look hypothetical

* seven The trees began to wave emitting a hollow sound from a great depth beneath the earth Much adorned by the distance they sought life’s silent companions had been stung by charm unable to remember or follow your train of thought so well they took sufficient escort when obliged to move willingly through life infested with robbers youthful maidens will render your name Alone as a stranger the delight of a company overrun by wild men avoiding all retired religions made to order for a civilization that brought forth tender affects and the arts of peace changed a raging flood into a waltz streaming from a fountain