Certain Details: The Poetry of Nelson Ball

by Nelson Ball, Stuart Ross (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771122740
Publisher:	Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Publication date:	03/15/2017
Series:	Laurier Poetry , #26
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	110
File size:	483 KB

About the Author

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.”
Stuart Ross is a writer, editor, and writing instructor. His recent books include A Sparrow Came Down Resplendent (2016), A Hamburger in a Gallery (2015), and Further Confessions of a Small Press Racketeer (2015). He has maintained a micropress, Proper Tales, since 1979, and has his own imprint at Mansfield Press. He lives in Cobourg, Ontario.

Table of Contents

Foreword, Neil Besner and Brian Henderson xi

Biographical Note xiii

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

From With Issa: Poems 1964-1971 (1991)

Night Window 1

The Hill 2

Dry Spell 2

The Room 3

The Table The Chair 3

Into & Out Of 4

Dust 4

Force Movements 5

Admixing 7

Preference 8

Fragment On Poetics 8

Snow-Boots 9

February 9

Writing A Poem 10

The Audit 10

Points Of Attention 11

Epic 11

With Issa 12

From The Concrete Air [1971-1972] (1996)

Air 13

Cote DAzur 13

Talk 14

Poem For Your Bum 14

From Under The Porch 15

Huron County: Sunset 15

Clouds 16

Spring 16

The Hum 16

The Concrete Air 17

Fly 17

The Baby 18

Flight 607, Montreal To Toronto, July 5, 1970 18

Rhymes 19

Dirt 19

The Fly 20

Toward Spring 20

From Bird Tracks on Hard Snow (1994)

Wind 21

Briefly 21

The Spruce 22

Night Sound 22

To Barbara 23

December 23

Sparrows 24

September 25

Fall Sky 25

The Primaries 26

October 8th 27

In The Park: Remembrance Day 28

Tracks 28

From Almost Spring (1999)

Snow And Freezing Rain 29

March 20th 29

Early Thaw 30

Swallows 31

Black Cloud 31

Late Afternoon 32

The Sands Of Wrigley Lake 32

Watching 33

Note 33

Colours 34

Fallen Trees 34

Grasshopper 35

Journal Entry: Nov. 10, 1992 35

From At the Edge of the Frog Pond (2004)

Kaladar 36

April 36

Scrub Cedar 37

At The Edge Of The Frog Pond 37

Power Blackout 38

In Silence 38

In Marked Contrast 39

Miracles 40

Without Prejudice 40

Gealla 41

Knocked Out 42

First Snow 42

The Pool 43

November 43

The Only Sound 44

From In This Thin Rain (2012)

Anti-Gothic 45

How Low 45

Dead Flies 46

After The Rain 47

Leaf 47

Crickets 48

On The River 48

The Old House 48

An October Day At The Mount Pleasant Ponds, Mourning 49

Bannister Lake 51

Snowdrifts 51

Walking 52

What Remain 52

Farm Market Reports 53

From Some Mornings (2014)

Some Mornings 54

A Rattle Of Spring Frogs 54

Talk 55

Unheard 55

Sensory Perception 56

The Squirrel 56

My Caffeine 57

Geese 57

You Must Look Hard To See What's There 58

To Bernadette Rule And Her Lovely Daughter, Caris 59

Landscape 59

Point Of View 60

At The Farmhouse 60

At The Ponds 61

Autumn 63

Ahead 63

Uncollected Poems

May 23: Sunset 64

In The Orchard 65

A Final Question 66

Caution 66

Fishers 67

Midnight Walk In Bruce County 68

Willows 68

U.S. Foreign Aid 69

The Real Story 69

Catherine Visits 70

Plum 71

LAbbaye De Senanque 71

Low Moon With Loon 72

A Romance 72

Fences 72

Light Line 73

Ties 73

Storm Warning 74

Afterword: Me and My Poetry: An Autobiographical Essay, Nelson Ball 75

Acknowledgements 83

Interviews

- Ball's poetry provides a link from the 1960s heydays of Canadian poetry to the present