Martyrology Books 3 & 4. bp Nichol

      the martyrology

      carrots onions celery potatoes

      cheddar cheese

      beef for stock

      salt pepper garlic

      windy day

      keep the door open

      kitchen cool

      core & steam the cabbages

      peel the leaves

      rice & vegetables for the hollopchis

      sit around the table

      talk of nothing

      good feeling for the job that’s done

      walk the fields the wind blows

      blue sky above you always

      pray that will be so

      the maRtyRoLoGy

      Books 3 & 4

      Bp nichol

      THE MATYROLOGY

      in its entirety is

      as i said originally

      for Lea

      without whom

      quite literally

      none of it would have been written

      ‘this is the 16th straight day of sunshine hot weather here in divineland be so have found some little spots on the west van side for lots of swimming — maybe i should have been a fish, deep breathing floating i learned all those years ago, body totally relaxed back slightly arched & just letting the ocean hold my face up to the blue sky. sweet heaven, who needs the jesus freaks, spine, which was wrenched again at work (in the valve factory, if yu can dig it, & i can’t thus this is my last week & then taking a carpentry course) is feeling much better, thanks to hands of mother ocean.

      i think it’s becoming a good summer all in all. Pat & i going well, have much to love together, its been hard, lots of work to do. there are images we love in common, that’s the most important thing i’ve ever sd. i don’t believe in islands but our house & garden has an oasis like look abt it. the garden coming in good with the sun & all the trees around it.

      *

      some paradise

      a slice

      *

      well, i tend towards the rural in my soul — never was big on sophisitcated city images, we’re moving right along, its our time now.

      hope this letter finds yu & yours feeling fine.

      perhaps less time will elapse between, i hope so & look out there for your poems & letters.

      love

      David

      ‘Grant me a good dream, a beneficent dream. If I shall truly marry the daughter of poetry, if she is to be the companion of my well-being, the companion of my fortune, and if we are to grow old together, make it apparent to me, O Ancestors.’

      Batak prayer

      to find a bride