SOURCE: "Bill Bissett," in Canadian Writers and Their Works, Vol. 8, edited by Robert Lecker, Jack David, and Ellen Quigley, ECW Press, 1992, pp. 17-109.

[In the following excerpt, Jirgens places Bissett's work in the tradition of English Romantic poetry.]

bissett can be thought of as a late Romantic maverick. In many ways, his writing seems anachronistic. On the one hand, it displays structural manipulations that are typical of the twentieth century. On the other hand, it embraces a timeless transcendental philosophy.

From a philosophical viewpoint, it could be argued that bissett is working in the tradition of Romantic writers such as Blake, Shelley, and perhaps Yeats. Like his Romantic predecessors, bissett values individualism and original imagination. On one level, the distinctive variety of approaches in bissett's writing can be seen as an affirmation of his will as an individual.

David Perkins, in his English Romantic Writers, discusses the qualities of Romanticism and the contributions made by German critics Friedrich and August Wilhelm von Schlegel in 1798:

The "Romantic" refuses to recognize restraints in subject matter or form and so is free to represent the abnormal, grotesque, and monstrous and to mingle standpoints, genres, modes of expression (such as philosophy and poetry), and even the separate arts in a single work. Ultimately it mirrors the struggle of genius against all limitation, and it leads to a glorification of yearning, striving, and becoming and of the personality of the artist as larger and more significant than the necessarily incomplete expression of it in his work.

The parallels between this tradition and bissett's own writing are obvious. Like the Romantics, bissett refuses to be limited by either structure or subject. His representation of social ills is often grotesque or bizarre. The yearning or striving for self-growth in his writing parallels a self-actualization in real life.

As several critics have already pointed out, it is possible to trace a number of Romantic influences in bissett's poetry. While an understanding of the Romantic aspect of bissett's poetry is quite useful, I believe that we must go further in order to gain a deeper appreciation of his writing. The relationship between bissett's transcendentalism and his poetic structure is significant, particularly if one considers his lyric poems.

bissett's poetry serves a bridge-like function linking the real or actual world with a transcendental ideal world. For bissett, the transcendental world represents an ideal Other and bissett's lyric poetry is characterized by the desire to become one with this Other, bissett continually returns to the matter of "yunyun" (i.e., union). The process by which this union happens is what bissett himself calls a molecular dissolve. The breakdown of the ego is accompanied by the structural fragmentation of the text. The dissolve begins with a type of propulsion. The aggressive psychic drives inspired by desire and death are initially used to propel the protagonist towards the ideal or the Other. However, upon transcending the physical world, notions of desire and death become irrelevant. Instead, the subject enters into a spiritual union with the cosmos. At this point, the ego has dissolved and merged with the cosmic environment.

bissett uses the language of poetry to create a bridge between the depths of his unconscious and the ineffable limits of the external world. Poetry is the bridge between the individual unconscious and a collective cosmic consciousness, between actual and ideal, bissett's earthly world is like Plato's, an inferior mirror of the idyllic astral plane. However, unlike Plato's, bissett's ideal or spiritual world is accessible here and now, if only for brief moments. Aspects of the natural world such as forests, lakes, birds, and so on are already invested with the essence of the ideal. It is only a question of recognizing this essence. It is as though the real and the ideal are parallel universes. One can be standing in a forest and suddenly be transported to an alternate world provided one is able to transcend the limits of conventional perception. Much of bissett's poetry deals with the effort to transcend the quotidian in order to reach the ideal plane which is characterized by grace, beauty, and love. Frequently, his poems deal with binary relationships, surfaces which must be penetrated, reflections, mirror doubles, and so on. These binary pairs establish the two aspects of the self that bissett is concerned with in his writing. Similarly, images of doorways, passages, and journeys frequently recur in his writing, bissett's poems, and especially his lyric poems, often feature an earth-bound self and an Other self which transcends this reality. The Other self and the Other reality become synonymous because within the idylic world there is no differentiation between the individual and the rest of creation. The dissolution of differentiation is in keeping with bissett's molecular view of the universe. For bissett, the dissolve of the ego that is necessary in order to achieve a transcendental state is complemented by a dissolve of language:

bissett's linguistic form transcends literary convention in a way that echoes his protagonist's transcendence of the physical dimension. While the fragmentation or dissolve is not as extreme in the lyric poems as in some of the concrete poems, it is still significant. The absence of punctuation, the frequent chant-like quality, and the dissolution of conventional form all serve to suggest a state of being that goes beyond our linear conceptions of time and space.

There is also a dissolution of the more conventional signifying function of the language of the text. The various signifiers ultimately refer to a single cosmic union. A unique set of conditions distinguishes things on the transcendental level. Waves, intervals, and densities are conditions that describe the properties of the ideal plane. Images of lakes, birds, and mountains serve a purely symbolic function representing the pulse, the freedom, and the sense of timelessness that is experienced by the journeying soul. The dissolution of a difference between self and Other is frequently celebrated in bissett's more ecstatic lyrics. Within this state, the subject enters into a communion with the sacred living things of the ideal world. The features of the landscape in bissett's lyric poems are perceived to be alive. Like the birds and trees, the sky and the water are invested with a kind of sentient energy. The earth itself is often depicted as being alive or breathing. Further, this ideal astral world is illuminated by colourful auras of the type that are depicted in bissett's paintings. But, only those who can transcend the conscious barriers of the material world are able to become one with the idyllic metaphysical plane.

There is something primal about the journey of the soul to the ideal plane. In a way the journey can be thought of as a return. The protagonist as a child of the earth-mother seeks to return to the comforts and nourishments of the paradise that existed before "civilization" deteriorated the earthly plane. The cosmic plane can be understood in terms of a spiritual rather than physical fulfilment, bissett's lyric poetry features brief flights in a timeless realm of being beyond the shifting, sensory world of earth-bound experience:

On the transcendental plane spatio-temporal laws are suspended infinity appears to lie within a single idyllic moment.

The desire to return to an ideal world or a type of paradise can be explained in terms of neo-Platonic transcendentalism and Amerindian shamanism. Scott Watson, in his introduction to fires in the tempul, explains: "The ecstatic outward movement of the artist/shaman is an attempt at return." Watson discusses Mircea Eliade's theories as expressed in Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, and explains that the shaman is interested in abolishing the present human condition and recovering the situation as it was at the beginning of time. Friendship with animals and knowledge of their language can be read as signs that the shaman has re-established the "paradisal" situation that was lost at the dawn of time. Generally speaking, bissett's lyric poems are marked by an attempt to return to the paradise which, it could be argued, has a paternal aspect. In bissett's poems, the protagonist unites with a kind of universal father and mother figure upon reaching cosmic consciousness. Sometimes these figures are represented as gods, at other times in the guise of a living and breathing earth. The figures are identified in poems such as "sonik prayr" as "th ancient lord laydee uv th univers." It is significant that the god and goddess are omnipresent. An awareness of their presence is dependent upon the protagonist's level of consciousness.

In bissett's poetry a union between the spiritual self and spirit of the cosmos can only happen by becoming unconscious of the physical world. Theoretically, in bissett's poetry a completely transcendental state of beauty and goodness is simultaneous with the moment of death. Only with death can the physical plane be completely abandoned. This view may have something to do with bissett's own out-of-body and near-death experiences. He has explained in the past that his brief visions during moments of physical crisis have given him glimpses of what he believes to be a paradisal world on the spiritual plane.

I mentioned above that for bissett, modes of expression such as poetry can form temporary bridges between the physical real and the spiritual ideal. However, it is important to keep in mind that bissett is engaged with painting and writing as process rather than product. Poetry not only can form a bridge, it can be the impetus by which the link between the physical and spiritual is formed. By being fully engaged in the act of painting or writing, the body, mind, and spirit become in tune with the cosmos. If we confine ourselves to linguistic expression, then, for bissett each act of writing can be seen as having the potential of becoming a transcendental experience, bissett appears to be aware of the bridging power of writing. The following excerpt from "poetry dusint have to be" serves to illustrate this premise:

writing poems can be abt many things
can be abt nothing but what it itself is
writing pomes in a way is longr than we are
and what we can know writing pomes
is also th voice uv ths things speaking thru us
(MEDICINE MY MOUTH'S ON FIRE)

For bissett, poetry can form a bridge between self and Other; it can also be the thing that opens up the channels between the two worlds….

While poetry serves as a link or bridge between the material and spiritual worlds, physical activities do play an important role in bissett's lyric poetry. Activities such as breathing, chanting, taking drugs, working, meditating, copulating, and praying are used in order to abandon the restrictions of the conscious mind in order to achieve transcendental psychic states. With sexual encounters the figure of the Other is especially significant. On the physical plane the paradisal world finds an earthly counterpart in the sexual partner. The poem "in ths forest" in Beyond Even Faithful Legends, which originally appeared in MEDICINE MY MOUTH'S ON FIRE, is a good example. In that poem a transcendental awareness is simultaneous with the sexual experience:

A profound sexual relationship with a physical Other can potentially establish a transcendental channel or bridge to the spiritual Other. The ejaculation simultaneously becomes the release from the physical and the entrance to the astral plane.

The poem "rose th night nd th green flowr" is an especially good example of the interrelationship between sexuality and the transcendental state. In this poem bissett uses a great deal of personification:

This is not the vegetation of the physical world. It exists on an alternate and ideal plane of existence. The living plants and trees become an extension of the protagonist and his lover/Other. The sexual union between the two lovers is complemented by their union with the immediate environment. Later in the poem the connection is emphasized:

Where earlier the trees and plants embraced each other, here they embrace the lover. The connection between natural environment and lover is further emphasized by the fact that there is a "rose" in the lover's "forehead." The relationship is discussed in terms of floral images. When the speaker says "ths flowr opening takes yu," he is referring to the growth of feeling between the two. Later, he describes their love as a "bright green flowr." The floral imagery throughout the poem serves to reinforce the union between the lovers and the union between lovers and environment. At least on a symbolic level, the environment and the lovers are one.

The unity of the lovers is further symbolized by images of smoke and fire:

The smoke and the fire between them become gateway images that open the door between the conventional physical world and a heightened awareness of the spiritual plane. The act of smoking unites the two individuals and prepares them for the transcendental journey. Related to the images of fire are sexual images:

The fact that the "univers" can be found between the lover's legs is a strong indication of the transcendental quality of the sexual experience. Further, there is a confluence of vegetable and sexual images in this passage. This confluence is characteristic of bissett's molecular dissolve. That is, the various image sets start sharing the same signifying function. Everything enters into the transcendental union:

The transcendental quality of this plane of experience is emphasized by the suspension of conventional physical laws. For example, the lover is not subject to the laws of gravity: "thn as yu walk ovr th cliff nevr falling ç all / is light ç tendrness" (Beyond Even Faithful Legends).

Not only are physical laws suspended, but so are temporal ones. Near the opening of the poem, time is measured by the lover's "nevr ending heart / beat" (Beyond Even Faithful Legends). The poem itself can be thought of as a type of return to an original paradise which can only be perceived by those who can transcend the physical plane. The narrator/protagonist points out that he

but that

Unlike the others, the two lovers are able to transcend the limits of conventional perception. The notion of a return to a primal origin is emphasized in the final line: "glad to cum home" (Beyond Even Faithful Legends). In "rose th night nd th green flowr," sexuality becomes a means by which a transcendental state can be reached.

A related transcendental bridge in bissett's poetry is built by breath and breathing. Perhaps the most subtle as well as most important image in bissett's shorter lyric poems is breath. In bissett's work, breath is perceived as evidence of spiritual energies unified with the physical body. Through breath comes vocal expression, and in vocal expression the physical and spiritual are united, resulting in a temporary transcendence of this plane. The rhythm of breathing often suggests an ecstatic coupling with the spiritual plane as this passage from "th breath" suggests:

Just as the image of the spirit ship becomes a metaphor for the journeys of the soul, so breathing becomes a metaphor for the sea of all life through which the body as vessel travels through:

The sea of life is limitless; therefore, it goes "a long way" and yet it is all around us hence "no way at all." For bissett the journey of the soul occurs on this sea of living breath.

A kind of enlightenment occurs in the poem. The protagonist arrives at a point where he realizes that he is in a union with the things that he experiences:

The boat can be understood as the physical self. Initially, the speaker is unaware of the connections between things. But a kind of molecular dissolve is accompanied by a dissolution of the ego. The protagonist in the poem realizes that he is part of a kind of rhythmic concatenation. His breathing keeps time with the strokes of his axe as he cuts wood. The image of his breath is echoed by the fire and by the vapour of the snow melting and then boiling in the pot. The metamorphosis of the snow from solid to liquid to vapour marks various levels of being which align themselves with the speaker's state of mind. He realizes that he is both an active agent and a part of much larger metamorphosis when he says earlier that, "at th first breath of life we stir and rise" (Beyond Even Faithful Legends). He becomes aware that he is included in a larger cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. The cycles echo the images of waves and breath that come earlier in the poem. Schematically, the smaller cycles of breath are part of the larger cycles of day and night, which are part of the still larger cycles of life and death and so on. A mantric pattern emerges in the poem and the cycles within larger cycles could be described as being akin to a sinusoidal wave which pulses rhythmically.

Finally there is an awareness that all living things, whether sentient or not, are part of the same rhythmic song of life:

The poem as lyric becomes a type of metasong. It is a song about universal rhythm. The sun becomes an image of enlightenment. It dawns on the protagonist and on the reader that all life is part of the same cosmic cycle. Since one is part of the universal whole, to destroy or lose any part of life, however insignificant, is to diminish the whole as well as the self. The notion is an ancient one, and perhaps finds its most eloquent expression well before the Romantics in Donne's Meditation xvii. If for Donne, "No man is an island, entire of itself," then for bissett, we are all united in a transcendental sense by being part of "th one blood stream" which is the cosmic all. It could be said that the rhythms and intervals in bissett's lyric poetry are an echo of the pulse of this universal blood stream.