NO PARKING (1982

NO PARKING (1982) 10:30 min.

This is the third iteration of the poem; previously, this free-verse poem appeared in my 1977 book, No Parking. The long litany of images became a must-read in public poetry evenings; later on, I performed it accompanied by a mouth harp once, then a cello, even a double bass. This was to be the last time I performed live in a videopoem. I am seen pacing back and forth in front of a No PARKING sign on a loading dock. After a bit of the Hamlet-style self-reflection I recite the opening lines: To die my hair and live again. I am in the middle of things, yet beginning over and over and over and over. To die in the middle of things, yet beginning, What follows is a voice over of the poem, matched with shots of the passing buildings, telephone wires, from a moving car (the camera was left in the back seat, pointed out of the window rolling the whole time); a cemetery in winter and lots of unique No Parking signs. My favourite found image is at the end – a schoolboy runs up and down over snowbanks in an alley.