In any discussion of experimental poetry in Canada, the central figure is bpNichol. (p. 213)

[Journeying & the Returns] in its very packaging provides a convenient schema of Nichol's concerns as a poet…. Journeying & the Returns came in a cardboard box, containing three distinct elements: a small printed book, a collection of postcards and other visual presentations, and a record.

The book consisted of a long "trad" poem-sequence actually called "Journeying & the Returns." ("Trad" may provisionally be defined as any poetry which continues to rely on syntax and semantic connection as its basic structural means of operation.) This is, in retrospect, far from the best of Nichol's "trad" poetry. The sequence is too diffuse, its central themes are never clearly articulated, and it relies too much on vaguely romantic images of the sea. The line-lengths are short and choppy, and though Nichol's very pronounced personal rhythms are often in evidence...