Gifts. bp Nichol

      “What I have written has no plan, or at least is not planned. If it has a shape it is chiefly that it returns to its beginning. It has themes and a theme even if it wanders far. If it has a unity it is that what goes before conditions what comes after and vice versa”

      from The Anathemata by David Jones

      “If we don’t garden the tongue,

      they’ll blacktop it over.”

      Gerry Gilbert, in a letter

      “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.”

      Isaiah 11:2

      “… And the number of gifts of the Holy Ghost is seven.”

       gifts

       given

       gifts

       The Martyrology Book(s) 7 &

      consisting of

      ASSUMPTIONS (A Counting Bk VII—1984 to 1988)

      ST. ANZAS: basis/bases (The Martyrology Bk (10)8—1985 to 1988)

      MONOTONES (1967 to 1972)

      SCRAPTURES (1965 to 1972) etc. et al

      copyright © Ellie Nichol, 1990,2003

      Second edition

      This epub edition pubished in 2010. Electronic ISBN 978 1 77056 073 4.

      The quotation on the back cover is from bpNichoFs “Narrative in Language: The Long Poem,” first published in The Dinosaur Review, then reprinted in Tracing the Paths, edited by Roy Miki (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1988).

      Thanks to Nicky Drumbolis, Lola Tostevin and Ellie Nichol. - I.N.

      Published with the assistance of the Canada

      Council and the Ontario Arts Council

      National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication

      Nichol, B. P., 1944–1988

      Gifts : the martyrology book(s) 7 & / b.p. Nichol. - 2nd ed.

      Poems.

      ISBN 1–55245–090–2

      I. Title. II. Title: Martyrology book(s) 7 &.

      PS8527.I32G55 2003 C81 T.54 C00-930205–0

      PR9199.3.N48G42003

       To go beyond THE WORD, exercise control over it? no NO NO — BEYOND THE WORD, not to merely control it but to overcome it, go be yond the point where it is even necessary to think in terms of it

      Journal note

      Vancouver

      April 7, 1964

      2:15a.m.

      for ellie

      outside these books

      that life