An H in the Heart

Bert Almon is a professor of English at the University of Alberta and
the author of Calling Texas and Earth Prime.

bp Nichol produced an extraordinary amount and variety of work in his 44
years, and much of it is out of print or hard to obtain. A selected
works has been needed and this volume fills the need. It contains
examples of his lyric poetry, concrete poetry, cartoons and doodles,
elaborate Dadaist satires (Nichol’s ads for the “pataphysical
hardware company” and his collector’s cards on Canadian literature),
and even a comic-book narrative using genuine photographs. The speech
and thought balloons of the comics seem an obsession with Nichol; he
loved the way that they frame language and represent thought. Readers
new to Nichol may be first bemused, then charmed or repelled by all this
creative uproar; but the collection will let them decide whether they
are interested in exploring his work in more depth. Nichol’s skill in
writing a poem without the zaniness will make some readers regret that
so much of his energy went into inspired clowning, but Nichol doubtless
believed, along with William Blake, that “exuberance is beauty.”
This is certainly an exuberant book.