Robert Budde
Dreamland Theatre
Poems
Š Robert Budde, 2010
Published by wink books. Composed in Adobe InDesign. wink books 265 King Drive Prince George BC V2M 5R1 rbudde@shaw.ca
dreamland theatre
Hwy #16 a poetics of interruption, green signs that names exist, shifts in zones of code, the topography a knowledge in the syntax of rivers that can kill you the weather is from the north and west a text tracking eye but the water flows everywhere even here on the new highway the poet’s teacher talks behind the poem pointing out the old homesteads, overgrown roads each valley is a climate a tincture, a spool of vegetation veering away from the asphalt, axles refusing the traffic laws, progress sliding in mud, a bloom of spores travel was a finger pointed at a spot up the valley—now the highway goes around, longer, inefficient; and old hazelton exists apart, a benchmark, an anthology of poems from the predecessors, dedications inscribed in finding one’s way.
The New Economy How must it be to be caught in the Empire, to have everything you do matter? --John Newlove
the forecast is for castes of greater and lesser and the charts glaze over with want the bubble is water and air; the tipping point is a mean temperature hedges are like properly broken lines—in keeping with property values but the risk is not yours bookings are accessed by writers of wealth and exemptions abound in derivative contracts, leverage, recognizable structures and the liquidity of investment in the empire no need to listen: certainty surrounds the old economy—playing with oneself has always been a good bet self-absorption is a hemispheric phenomenon and cancels out the emotional use of language and how it addresses the animal futures, forwards, options and swaps are the only way one line can move to the next in the empire pyramids cover with sand unless the word has no operating leverage, I have no interest in its profit, poetic value has no place in reasons for imaginary debt and so, eventually, comes clean
The Regions of Out traces of the town unsettled like populations of who terrace’s mill shipped out on flatbeds of gas and oil and the mall fills with associations is a name sustainable? are bar conversations a poetics of the north? is the way out commercial drive and shop? a fistfight on the shore over access, modes of use but none of them really work stanley, belford, purdy, & newlove the paths and waterways knowing the overgrowth of living language i travel the regions listening for the old ways, a funky answer to an 1890’s question
Walking with Ken down Victoria, or up the hill through crescents to Central, the powers tilted away from speech before it is and then rethinking why Cranbrook Hill by the Dakelh name and the cutbanks surround the cupped hands taking and giving while Ken speaks of outside, the Nass and Blackwater where the mountains are reflected, uncertainty and systems begin to inform the masses I would not want to be anywhere else but walking with Ken, thinking about how to stand and not betray —if we were on a lake it would be in a strong, well-made canoe unlike the one I leave in the yard unwritten
‘En Cha Khuna’
for George & Marilyn Iwama
Nechako and Fraser, two languages and a third discovery, on the southside portage: a recollection, a passing passion to move on or stay by need or want, the provisions carried from the east and west the salmon run, at least then, steady and sure on that day in 1907, I would say to you ‘snachailya, musicho’ as a guest and co-explorer of inside the plateau of watersheds, neural directions we take from topography, wood a texture against our backs as we rest, historicize, work in a different economy, a training of tongues to carry this wet ‘lh’, or a collective barrier protecting this lake, this place up here where there is no pressure to conform to urban forms—here, identity is a new vehicle, cleaner, smarter and knowing how to say it
ashes across the pass the sound of land, wet and stopped, alternating language and substance, subject and object, lost in a host’s presence and how he greets you— the welcome is stone glottal and aspirant wistful over the river (but that river bend, that one over past the joining, that one is not for you) problem: standing on the ground double dawning like that other idea spoken to you and (‘ust’oh) like days of the week and work ethic and the lord’s order/layers of speech when the young girl says she is not coming home the language comes like (I am) a four-year-old an uncertain anger for a verb its sound eluding your tongue
(yun) you are
For Barry
after Creeley’s “For W.C.W.”
the fragment more there than say you
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then, too, the bastards spend themselves going somewhere a record of the poet’s insistence on context, repeating all that would
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writing the moment to crisis the inverted tree (absurdity or a poetics of rage transplanting around the idea what is given to write
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what one wants is what one wants some something or other the line yours carries an adamant distance
here
gas station meat flattened out, a red spot splash on the highway shapes in the cheesy logo of who you are trying not to stare at the cashier’s protein using too much b/c you don’t have the right tires and selfgratification is easy where living isn’t some CEO in California is laughing at us foods that rot quickly are better for you; other creatures don’t want most of the stock, clamped shut, a sphincter of few nutrients preserved for archaeologists wondering what went wrong all the faces stare back at you; the cooler fills with steamy breath hnghgnhgnhgnhgnnggnngngngn
hexis nexus Not to care is not owning but letting Aristotle work over the language. An energy of negative pedagogy and getting help to clear out of boxes of stuff. If you don’t know what is in the baggage, it is better to let it go somewhere else. Rocks say sedimentation is for a reason. Hold on not to the material word but its use; taste the air, flood the fertile space with habitus and bark chips. Security is knowing more knowledge is coming. I would not be big enough to hurt another person. At a moment of danger, being unequiped means more. Some would say stress is a badge of honour, a sign of success. I wait by the river wondering what will pass by today and waste whatever’s left.
Inside the Outside a report from the regions: tensor-stretched perception of geographical (that rise away from the Nechako, that course heading south) markers overlapped thought on the wrist, the phatic motion of pen, minor literature letters in english and not “say that again and i’ll kick your teeth in” a bilingual paracolonial shuffling at the outskirts of the poetics conference, an athletic listening to the subtext of the local a performing arts centre where the parkade is now: same clientele; engines idle in the BCR site send PM2.5 coughs to interrupt the aesthete voice for each asthmatic kid a new condo in Kitsalano equations are too easy in a land of drift and secrecy— a man found, hands tied to the steering wheel of a burning truck a real poet would know that feeling what story would you have me tell? a moose sighting? an evergreen glade paradise? back country gumption? it would take a lot of work to learn that style there are other inklings beneath the provincial arc of knowledge inside this place is no further transcendence, no special issue theme, no apologies for being (Eon) later, sooner (pre-), or back.
manmade creek the gold itself bidding on semantics where the stocks are a wiki entry for small stream near wells bc where art swells from the water table the icon is stainless steel and repainted biannually the car stop stanza break is for a northern copy of a copy of false creek and its undoing an invasive poetics would be aimed not at reshaping but lack of vision what else might be said passes past the ditch and embraces what ceases to exist the deliberate culvert clogs springly and willows are an american invention made from an invader species the photo ends up staking a claim on itself and losing it
The Controlled Burn Seeds unlocked nutrients, the stock is sprung, ignition cracks through clouds, unstacked the faller’s log books fall and the biomass is maintained. Sediment corrects itself and recalibrates the general economy with no road in. You see, the mercantilist narrative can’t live here and I will never export the poetics of land. The line is struck a careful interaction with the history of poetry. Where the edges are, a glimmer of smoldering sense hushes and goes out.
the largest service centre perfectly situated at the crossroads of two major highways and two water ways also the junction for the alaska highway 786km from one of four secure custody centers in it both open and secure custody based one of those gateways you first visit on business also a staging centre for mining and prospecting currently experiencing bolstered by a body of reporters from 100 mile house through smithers a leader in all facets of business and intends to be northern ‘s fastest growing call centre market a great place to currently experiencing enormous growth and improvement located in the center of a vast with many assets an excellent choice for professional customer service the perfect place to retreat after a hard days work now home to 416 low a northern capital a bustling of 80 changing a vibrant of 70 located at the confluence of the fraser and nechako rivers located at the confluence about 800 km from located in known as a northern located in the north central region of at the junctions of highways 97 and 16 the fourth largest in “right in the middle of it all� not any worse than the rest of the province in this category a manufacturing and distribution center for an agricultural and lumbering region a hub of activity offering visitors an
only local rival for impressive architecture becoming one of the west’s most popular snowmobiling destinations home to approximately 65 the largest centre in our region not allowed ideal for those who utilize public transit or who located in central approximately 496 miles from the primary trade and service area of 110 the regional service centre for post secondary education located on a spur of land at the confluence of the fraser and nechako rivers located right in the middle of and the regional centre of business located about 400 miles north of vancouver on the fraser river the voice for volunteerism in all about here one of the cornerstones of this strategy the only one of its type known to be preserved or to survive in canada one of canada’s investment hot spots pleased to announce that a family has been selected for our first build the main of the central interior bad known as the northern capital of a regional icon and a jewel in the crown of fast becoming the jewel of conveniently situated in the downtown core for all those reasons dependent on the logging industry for its economy a mid the getaway that has it all a cozy of 60 a sports persons parade
very excited as another prestigious event comes to our in the heart of northern the major transportation hub situated at the confluence of two rivers and surrounded by extensive boreal forests service driven of the opinion simply not true
The Great Outdoors and what is found there, your own threshold holding onto the architecture, leaving the frame inflected with fear and here you are—the meaningless fields and where they end, endless metaphors for feeling green —envy, I suppose; a hope grows that the land would have us back until then, the scene is set plastic molds whole ranges cupped into mouths—the hunting rambler, a beautiful trophy, a small consolation in a sad artful epidemic
wink books Š2010 265 King Drive Prince George BC V2M 5R1