Gregory Betts
@whatisapoem
Experimental Poet—Experimental Lit Prof—Experimental Musician Curator @ bpNichol.ca — Literary Arts Residency Lead @ The SETI Institute
Mariem Abutaleb, "Bold Rhythm", "Gesture of Writing", and "Extended Rhythm" (2026). Such gorgeous work.
A clean sweep of the Griffin Poetry Prize shortlist by American authors. Congratulations to them and that country. @griffinpoetryprize.bsky.social
Recalling the trip we took to Limerick, and the poem we spun en route.
Fixed Trump's sick genocidal rant. The only possible positive outcome of the day.
You are invited and welcome to "The Leafless Page", a one-day symposium at TMU on Thursday 9 April. We will be launching the new bpNichol.ca Digital Archive and collectively beginning to imagine its future use to readers, teachers, students, and poets. Register here: bit.ly/4lO65y6
The Reader, an iron sculpture. I couldn't find the name of the artist, but had some fun dialing the saturation up to 11.
50 years ago, Steve McCaffery published Carnival, The Second Panel, an explosion of words and letters produced by typewriter and stamp. "the message being that we are all poets one and all as long as we have lungs"
Dear Michael Morris, Love Gary Lee Nova, sent 2 June 1970; a colourful letter on purloined letterhead.
Still yelling with Johanna Calle's "abecé" from her stunning alphabet book (2012).
Save the date! I will be hosting a one-day bpNichol symposium at Toronto Metropolitan University on Thursday 9 April 2026. Details to follow!! Possible, tentative name for the event: "the leafless book": A One-day Symposium Celebrating the Re-launch of bpNichol.ca
Sean Monahan (8Ball) suggests that, maybe, the Mayan prophecy that the world would end in 2012 actually did come true: that the breakthrough adoption of smartphones and social media in 2012 definitively cut us off from the real world, and we are now moored outside of it.
"Moire Typeface" designed by Jack Gilbe (2009). Jack wanted to put a positive spin on this printers’ nightmare. The solution requires Moire to succeed – a typeface in which each character comprises two linear blocks. When overprinted, the letterforms appear as Moire interference.
"Faring thee well, now, let your life proceed by its own design. Nothing to tell now, let the words be yours, I am done with mine." RIP to Bobby Weir, a true psychedelic cowboy. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp18...
Early Glitch: my poem "When She is With I" with artist Toke Nygaard, published in Born Magazine (1999). Looks like the animated version has been lost to cyberspace.