Poetry Month-Book Spine Poems

As Poetry Month draws to a close, I am both sad to see my daily interaction with poetry end but also a bit relieved to not have the obligation of a daily post. The most fun thing for me was the book spine poem, both creating mine and then receiving poems by email. It's a delight to get to share them. Thanks all for sending. I have identified the author by name and location when I have them. The top poem was by Melanie Bennett from Massachusetts. What I love about the poems is that they are small works to savor and reading lists for future encounters with the book.

Enjoy!

Fiona Dempster, Australia

Hannah McSawley, North Carolina


Bettina Gellinek Turner, Massachusetts


Jeanne McMenemy, Washington


Jill A. Trescott


Katie Smith, Utah


mw


Patricia A. McGoldrick, Canada


timarusso

Book Arts Tuesday-Printmaking with Linda Germain

Linda Germain has a series of short instructional videos on gelatin printmaking at her youtube channel Printmaking Without a Press. She is a printmaker and book artist and teaches workshops in her studio in Haverhill, MA and around the country. You can learn more about gelatin printmaking and her own work at her Printmaking Without a Press blog.

Poetry Month-Bridge Street At Dusk

As Poetry Month draws to a close, here is one final offering from Loom Press—Bridge Street at Dusk by Tom Sexton, Lowell native and former Poet Laureate of Alaska, with illustrations by Richard Marion.



Here's what Loom Press has to say about the book:

In Bridge Street at Dusk, Tom Sexton returns to a place he never really left, the city that does not change and always changes. He sees the city in the distinctive subtle light to which a native is attuned, a light all the more complex for being seen by one who has been long away. In the American West, Tom Sexton is praised as a poet of nature and wild landscapes. In the East, he is known for his poems about his response to the urban ethnic mosaic of a rusted and dented post-industrial America, the flip side of what Jefferson imagined for an ideal agrarian society. Here, Tom Sexton shows us how the country fits together when he tells us about the blue heron in the grass near the remains of a riverside factory. He tells us about different kinds of pioneers, the ones who carried lunch pails and gave nickels to build the big stone churches that are now closing one by one. Every so often, he comes back to check the property on behalf of those who cannot walk the path or write the news. This is the latest report.

Bridge Street at Dusk at Loom Press

Studio Sunday-Spirit Book Bin

One of my plastic bins contains bits and pieces that never made it into a finished Spirit Book. There are sections of folded paper that never became books



and stitching and page ideas that never found their way into books. Some look as unpromising now as they did when they first went into the bin,



but others, like one at the top of the page, will probably find their way into a book one day.

Poetry Month-Send Your Spine Poem

Here's a book spine poem sent to me by Melanie Bennett. I'll be posting all I am sent on April 30 to close Poetry Month so please, send yours along to susan (at) susangaylord.com.

Poetry Month-April

A piece from 1981 combining words from Chaucer and Eliot on April. As with all the images I have of old work, it's scanned from a slide. This one is clearer than many but still not as clear as I'd like it to be.


Read along Chaucer:




Read The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot at poets.org.

Thoughtful Thursday-Learning from Art Lessons

I wrote Art Lessons to share what I have learned about making art over the last thirty-plus years. I have said about the book that I have only written what I know to be true. And now, having done the writing, I find that I am better able to absorb the lessons myself and act upon them.

It took me a long time to be able to comfortably say, "I am an artist." More and more I have become sure in my saying it and in my understanding the breadth of the identification. Being an artist means I make art. Being an artist means there is always a part of my brain and my heart that are engaged in the process whether consciously or unconsciously. Being an artist means that I approach everything with the same commitment to care and harmony whether it is writing a blog post, setting the table, or preparing a meal. And being an artist means that I need to find ways to structure my life so that I spend the most time I can doing creative work.

Last Saturday I attended the Independent Publishers of New England Conference in Southbridge, MA thanks to the encouragement of Pam Fenner of Michaelmas Press and the IPNE board. In the past I have attended events for publishers and found them informative but also overwhelming and discouraging to varying degrees. Happily, this time I left feeling positive and full of ideas. I'll be writing a series of posts about my experiences with publishing over the years, both with publishers and on my own, but the gist of the matter is that I want the control and the immediacy of publishing myself but when the book is done, I am ready to move onto the next project instead of promote the one I just finished. My goal for Art Lessons is to keep engaged and active with it while continuing with the rest of my work.

Art Lessons is a book I believe in. I think the content is valuable and I am pleased with it as an object. I like its size—small enough for a bedside table or my purse—

the intimacy of its words, and the simplicity of its cover. This belief, and my keeping Gertrude Stein's words which begin one of the essays: "Let me listen to me and not to them" in my mind, seem to be letting the releasing process flow.

My decision to do this book the way I have means that there is no place for it in a commercial context (except the Harvard Book Store where Paige M. Gutenborg, their book-making robot prints the book). The per book cost is too high to give percentages to bookstores or other retail outlets. To start, I am relying on the people who know me and my work online to begin the process. I have created a sales page on my website.

Because I want to encourage reading and conversation, I have a special offer to book and art groups, or any gathering of friends. If you purchase 10 copies of Art Lessons, I will do a free Skype or phone conversation with your group. If you do buy the book and like it, I would encourage you to help by letting your friends know about it and by writing a positive review on the Art Lessons page at the Harvard Book Store. Thanks always for your support. The feedback and connections I have made through the blog and other online avenues helped encourage me to write the book.

Preview and purchase Art Lessons

Poetry Month-Cameo Diner by Matt Miller

Another selection from Loom Press for Poetry Month—Cameo Diner by Matt Miller—beautifully designed by Victoria Dalis and illustrated with photographs by Meghan Moore.

Piscatory Diner from Cameo Diner:

I’m squeezed behind Formica and chrome, sitting in a diner booth
waiting for my steak and eggs, spitting tobacco into an empty Coke can,

and scratching some words on a paper napkin,
just hoping to hook a rhythm on stale bait while

outside in the millbrick midnight, the canals of the Merrimack
run red in the blood glow of brake lights.

Casting my lines across these city veins where carp slip in the muck
among blown tires, immigrant bones, and the used-up breath of

all of us bottom-feeding for meaning, I try
to fishplate this downtown mise en scène

of a hooker named Flowers sucking glass dick in an alley,
then stiletto-stepping through the parking lot

where a couple stumbles toward their car from the Worthen bar,
their tongues tangled as they lean against a burnt-out street light

while two kids hooded in gang rags slide like cobras
into the diner, smoking butts and taking stools in the corner

near Jimmy Sullivan, the old bantam weight whose sauced body
bobs and weaves over a half-eaten turkey sandwich

served by a waitress walking under nicotine halos
who smiles through too much makeup at me going hungry

as a hairnetted cook throws baking soda on a grease fire
that shuts down the grill for the night.

Here is an excerpt from an interview with Matt Miller by Jia Oak Baker in drafthorse: lit journal of work and no work:

In Cameo Diner, there’s this kind of musculature to your diction—the use of nouns as verbs.  It does a lot of heavy lifting throughout the poems.  Can you talk about your writing process as a whole and specifically to your choices in diction? 

I think a lot of that comes from the influence of Lowell as well.  Just the way people use language. And then picking up on the vernacular and just listening to the rhythms of the language.  I’ve probably heard someone tell a story in such a way and thought, “Wow.  They just verbed that noun.” It’s fun to do because sometimes there’s no verb that means the same—I want to say “the helicopters mosquito” because that’s what they’re like. I don’t want to slow down and go, “The helicopters were like mosquitoes.” It’s just too slow. I want to get there quicker with a little more punch. I want to combine the noun and the verb to get to the metaphor or simile quicker. I’m a big fan of Shakespeare--he was known to do that.  And also being from Lowell . . . Kerouac. I ended up reading a lot of Kerouac, and he did a lot of this “I’m-not-going-to-use-the-language-exactly-how-it’s-traditionally-done” stuff. I think he had a big influence on some of the rhythms and musculature in my writing. I’m not saying I write like Kerouac, but I think there’s a little of that same “driving forward” that he did.

Read the complete drafthorse interview

4 of Matt's poems at drafthorse (text and video of reading)

Cameo Diner at Loom Press

St. George's Day

St. George's Day is April 23rd. He is the patron saint of several countries including Catalonia in Spain, England, Portugal, Georgia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republic of Macedonia. St. George's Day in Catalonia is especially rich as it celebrates three things: St. George who fought and slayed the dragon and the day of the deaths of Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare (April 23, 1616). Boys and men give their girlfriends and wives roses; girls and women give their boyfriends and husbands books.

Here's a simple book to make and share:

You'll need two pieces of paper (it's okay if they have writing on one side), a piece of ribbon or yarn (mine was left over from an chocolate Easter bunny package), a glue stick, a piece of scrap paper, and assorted decorative paper scraps for collage. A piece of candy wrapper foil or a bead for the end of the bookmark is an optional extra.

Follow the directions to make two hot dog booklets.



Insert a piece of scrap paper under the first page of one booklet. Cover the entire surface with glue. Place a piece of ribbon on the top of the book near the spine with the ribbon extending up beyond the book. This will be the bookmark.



Place the other booklet on top lining up the spines. Rub your hand over the surface to help the glue adhere.

Glue assorted pieces of cut and torn paper to the front and the back to make covers. Start with a not too small piece and wrap it around the spine.



Continue gluing on pieces until the front and back are covered.



As an extra touch, wrap a piece of foil from candy around the end of the ribbon or tie a bead to the end. It is helpful but not necessary to place the book under a heavy book or other weight for a few hours.

Book Arts Tuesday-Neale Albert's Miniature Books

Yesterday's NY Times blog had an article by Alex Vadukul about Neale Albert who has a collection of over 4,000 miniature books. Mr. Albert was always a collector. The miniature books began when he needed to furnish a dollhouse model of Cliveden House in England, where he and his wife had spent a weekend.



Here's a bit of the post:

Part of Mr. Albert’s book collection is stored in a “cottage” on top of the Upper East Side apartment building where he lives with his wife. A small bookcase built specifically for his miniatures, each shelf only a few inches high, is packed with rows of the stout creations, elegantly bound and held inside precious slipcases. There are more in his apartment and in 20-some boxes in storage.

In the field, Mr. Albert is known for commissioning what he calls “miniature designer bindings” – the binding, in this context, referring mainly to the covers — that he believes elevate the objects to art. “A designer binding is a book binding usually made on commission,” he said, “and done by a binder who is not just a craftsman, but an artist.”

A leather-bound cover for a binding of “Brush Up Your Shakespeare” (part of a collection of bindings he had commissioned for a miniature book version of the Cole Porter song) was interpreted as a pinstripe suit that might be worn at a hot jazz club. A metallic cover for a book of Shakespeare plays bears a carving of a medieval scene. Mr. Albert commissions binders mostly in England and around Europe, and years can pass before the high-precision works are sent back to him.

NY Times article: Redefining A Little Library

Bookbinding Now Podcast: Neale Albert (Scroll down to August 3, 2011

Grolier Club: Exhibition Catalog of The Neale M. Albert Collection of Miniature Designer Bindings

Poetry Month-In Praise of Wild Things

In celebration of Earth Day, I took a few minutes to write out this poem by Wendell Berry which I have always loved. Thinking of it this morning led me to the bookshelves and this 1970 paperback, The Voice That Is Great Within Us: American Poetry of the Twentieth Century, where I first read it. Lots more poetry to explore.

Here's how I arrived at this particular image: I wrote out the poem with a Japanese marker, scanned it into the computer, and made it a layer over a piece of scanned Mexican bark paper. I changed the setting from Normal to Multiply and reduced the opacity of the background paper.

Studio Sunday-Spring On and Off Screen

Spring in front of the screen with Pieris and Scilla in a little vase and on the screen with a picture of bloodroot. I love the way the leaves are furled around the stems. I can see them in the distance when I look out the window as I work at the computer.

Poetry Month-Bloodroot

Last year was the first year of the bloodroot plant in the front garden. The flower came and went without my notice so I have been on the alert. Yesterday I saw a bud and today one of the flowers is in full bloom. My excitement led me to look for a poem about bloodroot. Here is one by Elaine Goodale Eastman which was included in her book, All Round the Year: Verses from Sky Farm, which was published in 1881.

Not pressing close on crowded ways,
Not shrinking back from any eye,
But calm beneath the open sky,
And slow to meet our curious gaze:

In April’s hour of virgin fame
The bloodroot gives her blossom birth,
And trusts within the kindly earth
The hidden sources of her shame.

Along the teeming meadow-side,
Hard by the river-banks are seen
Her close-veined sheaths of tender green,
With generous frankness opening wide.

When lo! the secret of an hour
By throbbing April warmth unsealed,
In sudden splendor stands revealed
The glowing whiteness of the flower:

A pure large flower of simple mold,
And touched with soft peculiar bloom,
Its petals faint with strange perfume,
And in their midst a disk of gold!

O bloodroot! in thy tingling veins
The sap of life runs cold and clear;
I break thy shining stemn, and fear
No conscious guilt, no lasting stains.

I brand with shame thy peerless brow,
Whose golden coronet is riven,
And cast to all the winds of heaven
Thy drifts of many-petaled snow!

Yet, ere the reckless deed appears,
Thy truth compels my heart’s disguise,
Thy beauty pains my mortal eyes,
Thy pulse-beats hammer in my ears.

I seem myself the panting earth,
The Spring within be newly born;
I feel thee from my breast uptorn --
I grapple with a larger birth.

My narrow senses downward hurled,
In upper air I blindly grope --
I strive to reach a living hope,
And blossom in the other world!

Go, struggles deep, and visions wild,
From heart and brain I set you free;
Thro’ human need I still must see
And grasp the human undefiled.

Go, wondrous flower --thy soul is mine--
My gazing cannot do thee wrong’
To me the conscious pangs belong!
To me, at last, the right divine!


Elaine Goodale Eastman led a fascinating life. You can read it on wikipedia.

If you're interested in learning more about the bloodroot plant, I suggest Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast by Carol Gracie.

Art Lessons Is Here!

After so much writing and so much thought, I find myself depleted of words as I announce the publication of Art Lessons: Reflections From An Artist's Life. So I'll just quote from the introduction to the book—

Art Lessons tells some of my story and shares the lessons I have learned along the way. I hope that you may gain some insight from my words and be inspired to spend time with your own story. It is there you can learn from the best of teachers—yourself and your work.

As David Bayles and Ted Orland wrote in Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of ARTMAKING:

“Put simply, your work is your guide: a complete, comprehensive, limitless reference book on your work. There is no other such book, and it is yours alone.”

and ask for your support. The book can be purchased from the Harvard Book Store where your copy will be printed especially for you by Paige M. Gutenborg, their book-making robot. If you get a copy and enjoy it, a positive review on the HBS page would be extremely helpful. If you have any suggestions for places to send review copies, I'd appreciate your sending me contact information.

Art Lessons at the Harvard Book Store (US and Canada only. I'll be posting information for overseas purchases soon.)

Preview (There is a preview at the HBS page as well.)

Printing Art Lessons at the HBS

Poetry Month-Pain

This image was scanned from a scratchy old slide. Despite its poor quality, it speaks to what so many are feeling after Monday's events in Boston. It has lines from Sappho:

Pain penetrates me drop by drop

and Emily Dickinson:

Pain has an element of blank;
It cannot recollect
When it began, or if there was
A time when it was not.

It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain
Its past, enlightened to perceive
New periods of pain.

Book Arts Tuesday-Libraries

I love libraries. Here are some links to some interesting and beautiful ones, both public and private.


The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World
the most comprehensive with links to many categories including home, academic, research, royal libraries

7 Great Quotes About Libraries On Pictures Of Beautiful Libraries from BuzzFeed

The 30 Best Places To Be If You Love Books from BuzzFeed


The 25 Most Beautiful College Libraries in the World from Flavorwire



Most Beautiful Libraries From Around the World from ABC News