George Bowering
00:00:08.82
We have two readers tonight, both Canadian poets, as you know, but in most cases when we have two poets as we did last time, we generally have one poet read for a while, and then have a break, and then have the other poet read for a while, but we're not going to do it that way tonight. We're just going to throw the thing open to both David McFadden and Gerry Gilbert and they will work it out as it seems to work out for them. This makes a lot of sense, although they've never read together before. They're both published by the same publishing house, and published in the same magazines and know each other, as they used to say in the old days in the Ivy league, by reputation. Gerry Gilbert is, as a lot of people we've had this year, is from the West Coast and has been involved for quite a while with an outfit in the coast that gobbles up your tax money called Intermedia. That's why the screen is there, something might happen there occasionally. Gerry was at one time the editor of a seminal West Coast publishing venture called radiofreerainforest, and is the author of a series of books and things that are like books, as for instance, White lunch which came out several years ago in Vancouver and the Telephone book which is published by Coach House Press, I think— No, Weed/Flower, sorry. Yeah. David has also been published by Weed/Flower and the Coach House Press, and his forthcoming book is the second volume of the Big/Little Book novel, called The great Canadian sonnet with illustrations by a little-known London artist named Greg Curnoe. His next book is going to be called Poems worth knowing, a title that anyone from Ontario or British Columbia will know. What we're going to do is they're going to operate for a little while, and then when they feel the need for a break there will be a short intermission, like about ten minutes, then we'll proceed again with what as they say the second set. So I'm not going to be able to say that somebody's reading first and somebody's reading second but I will be able to say is that the readers will be David McFadden and Gerry Gilbert.
David McFadden
00:02:40.00
CUT reads unknown poem "They try to teach you things so fast in school..."
Gerry Gilbert
00:06:03.72
CUT reads "Her right face, where I have seen her ride the last bus before..."
Gerry Gilbert
00:07:14.54
"A moving picture moves. It's the truth about movies..." [in the section "For Crying Out Loud," in Money]
David McFadden
00:07:33.80
"At the vending machine, Garfield got a bag of..."
Gerry Gilbert
00:08:20.35
"I remember tootsie rolls were only in American comic books..." [in the section "For Crying Out Loud" in Money]
David McFadden
00:09:46.71
"I sat next to her on the bus. She kept adjusting her black wig..."
Gerry Gilbert
00:10:38.60
"Four o’clock stove to off- remember..." ["London 1964" in the section "For Crying Out Loud," in Money]
David McFadden
00:12:28.58
"Received your postcard today and dropped it..."
Gerry Gilbert
00:13:37.20
"The waitress calls the man in the corner, Harry. Harry is one of my names..." [in the section "For Crying Out Loud" in Money]
David McFadden
00:14:30.56
"Nine inches from navel to vulva, your scar begins to heal..."
Gerry Gilbert
00:14:53.74
"The pleasure I said, I dreamed I was in Vietnam..." [in the section "For Crying Out Loud", in Money]
David McFadden
00:16:14.33
"Dreams have become so full of intricate detail..."
Gerry Gilbert
00:18:26.85
"Rum bay, 15 years in logging camps, 7 years fishing..." ["Single Mens Unit" in the section "For Crying Out Loud" in Money]
David McFadden
00:19:05.68
"The Bursby police are a fine group of men and treated me well during my ordeal..."
David McFadden
00:21:03.24
"Napanee home for aged Japanese Canadians..."
Gerry Gilbert
00:23:13.77
"Goodness and Mercy are following me across the lake..." [in the section "For Crying Out Loud" in Money]
Gerry Gilbert
00:24:10.87
"Bicycle, mount, mount to project..." ["Bicycle" in the section "For Crying Out Loud" in Money]
Gerry Gilbert
00:24:55.57
"On the bed, we held, two hands a pot...." unknown
David McFadden
00:25:32.92
"The successful young alderman of ambition..."
David McFadden
00:26:05.12
"The tub was dirty so I washed it out..."
David McFadden
00:26:18.11
"I'm leaving on Saturday, Harry the sweeper talking..."
Gerry Gilbert
00:26:49.52
"Blow by blow, solid, solid, short..." [unknown poem]
Gerry Gilbert
00:27:56.69
[Speaks]Somebody listens to passes? play, that was the blow-blow.
Gerry Gilbert
00:28:03.06
"Bone, ring on my finger, bell..." [in the section "For Crying Out Loud" in Money]
David McFadden
00:28:34.64
"Spitting out the used up toothpaste in the sink...."
David McFadden
00:31:05.77
"If you're lucky enough to be there when your name is called..."
Gerry Gilbert
00:32:10.33
We're reading Canadian History. A few of the poems from Phone Book.
Gerry Gilbert
00:32:28.79
"Mirror, mirror, from Middle English..." [in Phone Book]
Gerry Gilbert
00:33:05.36
"Stabit, she's big, her mom sed beefcatle! we're not dairy cows..." [in Phone Book]
Gerry Gilbert
00:33:42.83
"Day after tomorrow, Charlie, he's 77, he's Chaplain..." [in Phone Book]
Gerry Gilbert
00:34:31.44
"Conductor, CN Conductor, loyal..." [in Phone Book]
Gerry Gilbert
00:35:25.47
"It began to rain, we sat on the hill and I was getting wet..." [in Phone Book]
Gerry Gilbert
00:36:37.23
"The killer is at the top window, firing down..." [in Phone Book]
Gerry Gilbert
00:36:58.89
"Can't see the key, you have to reach for it..." [in Phone Book]
Gerry Gilbert
00:37:29.93
“This poem's called "Garden".”
Annotation
00:37:35.16
Gerry Gilbert reads "Garden" [in Money]
David McFadden
00:38:38.36
"No one knows his own potential for evil..."
David McFadden
00:39:21.63
"I made a left turn from Houston onto King..."
Gerry Gilbert
00:39:50.27
"Find your birds, ladies and gentleman, it's time to go..." [in the section "For Crying Out Loud", in Money]
David McFadden
00:41:32.90
"She was small and pretty, my heart broke..."
Gerry Gilbert
00:42:04.58
"Sometimes I miss the times I miss, the rain don't miss..." [in the section "For Crying Out Loud", in Money]
David McFadden
00:42:18.81
"Knowledge expands to fill the vacuum left by loss of spirit..."
David McFadden
00:42:57.49
"Am Alabama-bound, my brain is firm and round, don't need to know you..."
Gerry Gilbert
00:47:06.20
Did I hear you say 'boiled skunks'?
Gerry Gilbert
00:47:27.20
“This is a little tale. "I rolled down the slime trail after slug...".”
Gerry Gilbert
00:49:24.0
"Semitic origin, these etymological discussions run parallel..."
Gerry Gilbert
00:49:45.91
"Spadina Salvation Army, December 1969"
David McFadden
00:51:42.3
"Vital Statistics, Distances from Hamilton to Boston..."
Gerry Gilbert
00:53:02.45
"A place in mind clicks, switch, as soon as I think, slug and stupid prick, wet stone and pair of eyes, paradise and over the bridge and over the sun....nobody is a fucking character..."
David McFadden
00:54:52.10
"Joan was telling me how she was driving over Brucedale in that afternoon..."
David McFadden
00:55:52.73
"The dog across the street is a little Pekinese..."
Gerry Gilbert
00:56:53.0
“I heard you coughing there, here's some good stuff for coughs. "I was in Ottawa and I went to Parliament and they're all faking it" and "Matches, I never saw Eddie in Ottawa...".”
Gerry Gilbert
00:57:33.70
"I can't find the sky, push me into this room" and "I see you and baby, you and baby see me..." and following is a Rochdale College Council meeting, 23 Nov 1970, "9 or 10 council men and women, 30 or 40 people all together, kids and smoke crowded around..."
David McFadden
01:01:24.96
"Collier’s Encyclopedia says that Andre Gide was not quite as great as Marcel Proust..."
David McFadden
01:01:39.92
"Joan said she was miserable that day at the House of Vogue..."
Gerry Gilbert
01:09:59.70
[CUT ]And uh, "Buddha, somebody stole my head again" and "I jacked-off standing off..." and "We've been having technical difficulties for 50,000 years" and "Go sooner than you expect" and "If you like lots of food, if you can stand..."and "Ticket, way West, 1st 20 min rest stop..." "Pictures of Windows, clocks, lights..." "Pencil, don't dry out...", "Each a life, eat your wife" and "Fried egg sandwich on brown..."and "the world is so young..." and "Your own, a better night, sleep alone" and "She loved me..." and "hair, hooked behind my ears when..." and "your first is something nobody knows anything about..."
David McFadden
01:13:54.07
"The car was running very well back down the road to Walkerton..."
Gerry Gilbert
01:23:26.16
"I know what I'm doing, I'm doing it..."
Gerry Gilbert
01:27:05.17
"Eagle, hear me coming, combing long thoughts..."
Gerry Gilbert
01:27:52.83
"Water the garden after the sun went down..."
Gerry Gilbert
01:28:44.07
"Each size, big places I been seen..."
Gerry Gilbert
01:29:04.74
"Sweet, sweet babyland bird..."
Annotation
01:29:19.78
END OF RECORDING.
