I
miss our letters so thought I would write you one.
You
died February 19th, 2020 and I miss you.
I
wanted to write this to thank you and express how much of an honour it has been
to be your friend these past 15 years.
You
have taught me so much, by example and in our discussions, about writing, about
lifestyle, about ethics, about health, about respect, about integrity, about so
much more. My time in Prince George
would be so much poorer if you weren’t here. I imagine I would not be here; I think
I would have bolted years ago. Meeting over coffee with you was the highlight
of any week and I missed it if we couldn’t. We have had some tough times but I
think we have done great things. I always felt like I could trust you completely
and that makes all the difference in my confidence and how I move through the
world. To have an older male role model in this day and age is rare and I am so
grateful to you. I have more respect for you than any other and I hope to
emulate you as much as I can. Even though we lived in different contexts, me at
UNBC and you an independent scholar, much of what you taught me, I take and
apply to my behaviour on campus and in other groups.
The
writing community in PG is not ideal but we have done some good work. We have
some strong friendships across the country: Rita Wong, Jordan Scott, Steve
Collis, Larissa Lai, Jake Kennedy, Roger Farr, Jeff Derksen, Hiromi Goto, Tsering
Wangmo Dhompa, Eden Robinson, Dorothy Trujillo Lusk, Christine Stewart, Reg
Johanson, Jay Millar, Nikki Reimer, just to name a few. We have affected new
writers like Michal Latala, Jeremy Stewart, Carly Stewart, Derrick Denholm,
Justin Foster, Adrienne Fitzpatrick, Josh Massey, Taylor Ingram, and a whole
group of newer writers—that’s something man. In 15 years we have changed the
course—not by attacking and being petty, not by being alcoholic and patriarchal,
but by being true to ourselves and being a good role models for younger
writers.
I
think your poetry is one-of-a-kind and I hope it gets more of the attention it
deserves. Not awards necessarily—you always despised those— but good attentive
readings. I think your writing will influence many in the long run. You are a
school of poetry unto yourself. I am grateful to hear you speak about your
poetry as it evolved, and some of your influences that others would not be
privy to. You spoke about Robert Duncan, Adrienne Rich, Gary Snyder, Robert
Creeley (who you had a long correspondence with), Frank O’Hara, John Ashbery,
and others.
There
are many elements that distinguish your poetry in Canadian poetics. You established
a distinct assemblage poetics based on semantic slippage and disjunctive
other-than-lyric ‘gaps.’ Your ‘lan(d)guage’ is like nothing else; you tie the
rhythms and codes of poetry to the natural dynamics of the unroaded mountain
country, from the
perspective of out there, looking
back at the cities from the forest, from Blackwater Lake (T'amtuuts'whl'ax,
north of Hazelton in the Skeena Mountains). Your poetry asserted an outside, an
other, in two ways: your cultural distance from 30 years as a back-country
guide trained by Gitxsan hereditary chiefs (foremost being Walter Blackwater) and
in terms of gender expression, openly resisting the sexist ‘paternal’ and
misogynist ‘poetry boy gangs’. It was an ethics we shared all along and
structured our stand against the status quo”:
On 10/8/06 11:45 AM, "Ken
Belford" <kenbelford@shaw.ca>
wrote:
Back when I
workt in the treaty process, there came a time when racism and sexism became
more than intellectual or political principle but a poison to me, a moment when
I consciously moved into the knowing how vile these two human habits are, so
when confronted by it since then, I resist it in the now. Like I say, I'm proud
of you and your values. I honour our friendship. We are good for each other and
our relationship is healthy.
Jordan
Scott and I will continue on building your next book, tentatively titled The Answer to Everything: Selected Poems of Ken
Belford, and I hope a good attentive publisher picks it up. A message from
Ken to that publisher:
On 4/1/06 9:40 PM, "Ken Belford"
<kenbelford@shaw.ca> wrote: “When
I write a book, I'm not only interested in seeing something in my hand that I
can say is a book ... but I'm most interested in the other stuff ... the
relationships and purposes that go along with the book.”
Many
people have sent me notes and memories, all with respect and praise of your
writing and bearing as a man. I have many memories: visiting Gitanyow
territory, a reading a Coop Books, biking downtown, spending time with you and
CB, the trip we took with Si on your honeymoon, stopping by the glaciers on the
way to Banff, walks all over town. I feel like we have more work to do; but I
guess that will have to wait for someplace else another time my friend.
On
7/27/06 10:05 PM, "Ken Belford" <kenbelford@shaw.ca>
wrote:
I thought of a place where we could share
a cabin but we'd have to fly in but it could be set up legally. On Wiminosik
Lake ... or on Nass Lake. Wiminosik would be the least vulnerable and a little
cheaper to get to. It's probably too far. Wiminosik is a Gtxsan name for a
chief, a chief who is a friend. Weee -
min ah sick is how you'd say it. Winminosik is not too far from Blackwater.
Really wild. Grizzly country. Many little rainbows. Great wild berry picking,
especially Raspberry. It's the wildness though. Good drinking water too. Well,
at least now you know one place is there. I'm not sure I'd want to start all
over with building again but maybe. The place exists. In this conversation, one
would have to license it under my old guide license, otherwise, there's no way.
It's a thought, a lovely thought. Maybe best kept that way. In my mind I see
it.
Okay
Ken. Meet you there.
Bark
bark,
Rob
Rob Budde
teaches creative writing at the University of Northern British Columbia in
Prince George. He has published eight books (poetry, novels, interviews, and
short fiction) and appeared in numerous literary magazines including Canadian Literature, The Capilano Review, West Coast Line, Dusie, ditch, filling Station, Prairie Fire, Matrix, and
dandelion. His most recent books are declining america and Dreamland Theatre from Caitlin Press,
which was shortlisted for the BC Books Prize Dorothy Livesay Award. Manuscripts
in process include Testes (a poetic
engagement with maleness), Panax (a
cross-genre relationship with Devil’s Club), and The Salmon Wars (a speculative fiction novel about ecoterrorism in
a near-future Northern BC). He co-edits Thimbleberry Magazine: Arts + Culture in Northern BC.