Alphabet Game

This beautifully produced volume fills a large gap in 20th century North American poetry, selecting from the great long works of a master of profound whimsy, and also including arresting examples from his nearly impossible to find early works in concrete poetry. In addition to completing the six volume Martyrology before his untimely death, Nichol (1944 - 1988), who was born in Vancouver, wrote for the muppet-based children's show Fraggle Rock, and was a part of the seminal poetry performance troupe The Four Horsemen, which also included Steve McCaffery.

Barrie Phillip Nichol aka bpNichol experimented with visual and concrete poetry, performed as a member of The Four Horsemen and was a scriptwriter for Fraggle Rock.

The Alphabet Game surprised me with its earnest love of place and people – the poems take you along Toronto streets, on trips in trains, into human relationships. Nichol's poetry plays around with language: it pushes, stretches and jokes.

Bookforum recently published a great review of The Alphabet Game: a bpNichol reader:

Letters to the World

bpNichol’s poems celebrated the mutability of words

By JED RASULA

The Alphabet Game: A bpNichol Reader

by bpNichol

Who was the first blog poet? Wrong answer, whatever it was.

The late bpNichol, who died at the age of 44 in 1988, titled the seventh book of his lifelong poem, The Martyrology, Gifts. He believed that art was a gift, as were all examples of it, and as was the response to them. For the generations of readers who have come along since he died, The Alphabet Game should prove to be a monumental gift indeed, a wide-ranging introduction to the works of one of Canada's most gifted, and giving, radical imaginative writers.