Certain Details: The Poetry of Nelson Ball

By Nelson Ball

Nelson Ball has had a significant impact on contemporary Canadian poetry not only as a poet but as an editor, with his Weed/Flower Press in the 1960s and 70s. Certain Details provides a major overview of the breadth and many paths of Ball’s poetry over six decades. This selection of his work includes his trademark minimalist poems in addition to longer works and sequences; it spans nature poems, homages, meditations, narratives, found poems, and visual poems. The book contains selections from all of Ball’s major collections as well as works that have previously appeared only in chapbook or ephemeral form.

In a generous and thoughtful afterword, and for the first time in print, Ball discusses his processes, influences, and aesthetics. The book is introduced by editor and poet Stuart Ross, who offers a personal entry point into Nelson Ball’s extraordinary oeuvre.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Release date: Mar 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781771122740

Nelson Ball

Nelson Ball, poet and bookseller, lives in Paris, Ontario. He has worked as a labourer, chauffeur, office clerk, forest ranger, record store clerk, and janitor. From 1965 to 1973 he ran Weed/Flower Press. The author of over thirty books and chapbooks, he is featured in Catherine Stevenson’s video “Nelson Ball & Barbara Caruso | Home Project | A Photo Documentary.”

Book preview

Certain Details

  The Poetry of Nelson Ball

Certain Details

  The Poetry of Nelson Ball

  Selected

  with an

  introduction by

  Stuart Ross

  and an

  afterword by

  Nelson Ball

Wilfrid Laurier University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for its publishing program. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities. This work was supported by the Research Support Fund.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Ball, Nelson, 1942–

[Poems. Selections]

       Certain details : the poetry of Nelson Ball / selected with an introduction by Stuart Ross and an afterword by Nelson Ball.

(Laurier poetry series)

Includes bibliographical references.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-77112-246-7 (paperback).—ISBN 978-1-77112-273-3 (pdf).—

N 978-1-77112-274-0 (epub)

    I. Ross, Stuart, editor II. Title. III. Title: Poems. Selections. IV. Series: Laurier poetry series

PS8503.A59A6 2017   C811'.54    C2016-905385-7

                                                                  C2016-905386-5

Front-cover image: The Shore 2 (a Release print), by Barbara Caruso (1937–2009); serigraph, 1974. Copyright © Nelson Ball for the artist’s estate.

Cover design and text design by P.J. Woodland.

© 2017 Wilfrid Laurier University Press

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

www.wlupress.wlu.ca

This book is printed on FSC® certified paper and is certified Ecologo. It contains post-consumer fibre, is processed chlorine free, and is manufactured using biogas energy.

Printed in Canada

Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions called to the publisher’s attention will be corrected in future printings.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit http://www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.

Table of Contents

Foreword, Neil Besner and Brian Henderson

Biographical Note

Introduction: Several Points of Attention Regarding Nelson Ball, Stuart Ross

from With Issa: Poems 1964–1971 (1991)

Night Window

The Hill

Dry Spell

The Room

The Table   The Chair

Into & Out Of

Dust

Force Movements

Admixing

Preference

Fragment On Poetics

Snow-Boots

February

Writing A Poem

The Audit

Points Of Attention

Epic

With Issa

from The Concrete Air [1971–1972] (1996)

Air

Côte D’Azur

Talk

Poem For Your Bum

From Under The Porch

Huron County: Sunset

Clouds

Spring

The Hum

The Concrete Air

Fly

The Baby

Flight 607, Montreal To Toronto, July 5, 1970

Rhymes

Dirt

The Fly

Toward Spring

from Bird Tracks on Hard Snow (1994)

Wind

Briefly

The Spruce

Night Sound

To Barbara

December

Sparrows

September

Fall Sky

The Primaries

October 8th

In The Park: Remembrance Day

Tracks

from Almost Spring (1999)

Snow And Freezing Rain

March 20th

Early Thaw

Swallows

Black Cloud

Late Afternoon

The Sands Of Wrigley Lake

Watching

Note

Colours

Fallen Trees

Grasshopper

Journal Entry: Nov. 10, 1992

from At the Edge of the Frog Pond (2004)

Kaladar

April

Scrub Cedar

At The Edge Of The Frog Pond

Power Blackout

In Silence

In Marked Contrast

Miracles

Without Prejudice

Gealla

Knocked Out

First Snow

The Pool

November

The Only Sound

from In This Thin Rain (2012)

Anti-Gothic

How Low

Dead Flies

After The Rain

Leaf

Crickets

On The River

The Old House

An October Day At The Mount Pleasant Ponds, Mourning

Bannister Lake

Snowdrifts

Walking

What Remain

Farm Market Reports

from Some Mornings (2014)

Some Mornings

A Rattle Of Spring Frogs

Talk

Unheard

Sensory Perception

The Squirrel

My