Back in grade 11, our Canadian Literature class was bussed to a conference at a community college. This was either in 1979 or 1980. I don’t remember the overall theme, but a performance by The Four Horseman was my first introduction to sound poetry.
As much as I enjoyed the performance, I didn’t realize that it would be the moment that I was able to fall in love with poetry. The avant-garde craziness of this quartet, both as a group and in their other pursuits, allowed me to get past all the emotional and intellectual roadblocks that I had experienced trying to “understand” poetry prior to that fateful performance. Suddenly I was able to understand that poetry could be an act of performance, and that the sounds, timing, the montage of voices, the improvisational gumbo, and the enigmatic tension between erudition and dada nonsense could all be called upon to create a vital form of poetry. Well, whose life wouldn’t be changed by all this?
After that performance, I went to more Horseman performances, saw all of the readings that eventually comprised Ron Mann’s Poetry in Motion - a who’s who of performance poetry, from bill bissett to John Giorno, and Anne Waldman, discovered small press poetry, attempted to write my own small press poetry and start my own imprints, and learn about concrete poetry. I met and befriended individuals who were writing, reading/performing, publishing, and otherwise making independent poetry happen in Toronto, people that I now consider legends, like Stuart Ross, Lillian Necakov, Mark Laba, john curry, Paul Dutton (he of the Four Horseman), the late bpnichol (the greatest genius of the sound poetry and concrete poetry in Canada?), Nicky Drumbolis, Paul Venright, Charlie Huisken and Dan Bazuin of This Ain’t the Rosedale Library, poetry organizer Elliott Lefko (who would hire me to help out), Crad Kilodney (not a poet, but a key figure on the scene and in my life back then), Kevin Connolly, Lynn Crosbie, and countless others.
There’s a great little pocket book collection of the Horsemen’s poetry, Horse d’oeuvres (http://www.doullbooks.com/?page=shop/flypage&product_id=106172).
And here’s an excerpt from Ron Mann’s Poetry in Motion, a very fine performance by the group. You will either hate it or love it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=843O0bTVKHQ
