Journeying & The Returns, [B. P. Nichol's] first book of non-concrete poetry, contains five poems, each subdivided into six or seven sections. Each section is about one page in length and stands as a single thought further subdivided into commentaries on the acts performed as the thought takes place. The strength of these poems lies in the internal energy Mr. Nichol generates from sustaining a single direct statement for the shortest possible duration. The best of the poems is the fourth one, Beginning. And. End. (p. 278)
What I like about B. P. Nichol's poems is that he infuses the actions he writes about with whatever emotional crisis is taking place in his life, and that this combination produces the energy which is at the center of most of his work. (pp. 278-79)
Lewis Warsh, "Poetry Chronicle: 'Journeying & the Returns'," in Poetry (© 1968 by The Modern Poetry Association; reprinted by permission of the Editor of Poetry), Vol. CXII, No. 4, July, 1968, pp. 278-79.
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