The hard part for me was coming up with a poem that was not only appropriately short (14 lines is about right; I didn't want Joe losing his eyesight typesetting a 30-line poem), but also one that I like enough to have it committed to a beautiful piece of art. In the end, I asked him if he would please use "The Poet is the Priest of the Invisible," a poem that appeared earlier this year in The Kenyon Review Online. Joe thought it a fine choice.
Joe and Marquita began working on my broadside this past summer. I received regular updates from them about the typesetting and artwork. When I learned the artwork was going to be a man's hand holding a lug wrench, I was particularly pleased.
Joe and Marquita live in Longview, WA, but Joe has a son living in Seattle, so I was lucky enough to visit with him and receive in person my twenty copies while we sipped sparkling pomegranate juice in my living room and talked about music, childrearing, future projects (including an accordion book of his pool poems, one of which I provided a link to above), and mushrooms, among other things.
My sincere gratitude goes out to Joseph & Marquita for offering this broadside at a reasonable price "because it deserves to be seen."
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3 comments:
Congratulations on the beautiful broadside.
Thanks, Maureen. The great thing about working with Joe on this project together is that we ended up become closer friends, more appreciative about the others' creative process. Making broadsides is an altruistic labor of love--it reminded me that part of being a writer is what you give/contribute to your community without asking for anything in return. Joe's work in this department speaks volumes about his commitment to a larger realm than his own work--an admirable attribute, for sure.
An overall idea about the poet's expression for a artwork.
Accordion Shutters
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