Welcome to bpNichol.ca, the online digital archive of the Canadian author bpNichol (1944-1988) and the burgeoning community of readers, artists, and scholars inspired by his work. On this site you’ll find over 200 of bpNichol’s works available free for reading or download, including a collection of 29 handwritten notebooks. There are over 12,000 fully searchable pages from primary works, scholarly essays, and compilations. There are documentary films such as Michael Ondaatje’s Sons of Captain Poetry, with more to be added soon. There is also a growing, curated, community archive of art inspired by bp, showing the endurance of his artistic influence.

Now that the foundations of this archive have been set we’ll be undertaking exciting new initiatives and continuing to release material. Sign up for our newsletter below to keep yourself apprised. 

Please explore and enjoy the work that’s been assembled here and spread the word when you can.

– Yours, the bpNichol Digital Archive Board of Directors.

The First Recorded Sound Poem

This is the first recording of a sound poem by bpNichol, perhaps the first made in Canada (Brion Gysin was already recording sound poems over in Paris). As you can see, it is called “Beach at Port Dover” recorded in 1964. I received the record from Paul Dutton, of the Four Horsemen, who asked me to send it to the Estate, as he had fallen out with them. The Estate returned it to me to digitize.  

The record was made on a Voice-O-Graph, a novelty booth at fair grounds and, in this case, at the popular Lake Erie beach in Port Dover, Ontario. These machines were the audio equivalent of the mimeograph machine, allowing people the means to make their own demos for dirt cheap; 50 cents a disc.

The story of the recording appears in the SpokenWeb’s presentation of bpNichol and Lionel Kearns’ reading at Sir George Williams University in 1968. According to bp, he was “flaked out on the beach” when he heard the song “The White Cliffs of Dover” in one ear and “What’s New Pussycat” in the other. The juxtaposition set his mind thinking about the “weird” sonic collage, prompting him to write, and, on that same day, record his first sound poem, “Beach at Port Dover”. 

The track was re-recorded for his first LP Borders, an album that was released by The Coach House Press on 12 October 1967, a 7 ¼ flexidisc in a numbered edition of 500. It was released in a gatefold sleeve and packaged as a box with a book Journeying & the Returns, a flip-book WILD THING, Cold Mountain (a kinetic poem), and Letters Home (14 leaves and a pamphlet in an envelope). — Gregory Betts