Poetry Month-Loom 9

As part of the blog's Poetry Month celebration of Loom Press, here's an archival piece from 1982. Loom Press started with a series of broadsides. I did the lettering, white on black paper with torn edges, for this poem by Tom Fitzsimmons. I had based the design on the previous year's Christmas card.

I can still remember the sick feeling in my stomach when I saw the 100 copies of Loom 9. The black background was faded and nothing like the vibrant black of the card. It was a pretty typical experience for me in those days—jumping into projects with limited knowledge. At the time, most of my work for reproduction was done on the photocopier. I never thought to be concerned about different results when it was done offset.

The good news is that the more I looked at it, the better I liked it. I decided, in fact, that I liked the faded black background better than what I was expecting. The words were still readable and it captured the feeling of the poem "thru temple valley and time."