- commentary
Working with Mac Kieffer at Ash Creek Press, I made this signed & numbered edition of a folded broadside, five poems in an elegant little booklet printed on pale cream card stock. Mac chose the tiny fire from a set of possible cover drawings I'd brought in, and we decided to do it in red, shocking and delighting me. POEMS (like Family Business) is the result of collaborative deliberation. I'd worked with the folks at Ash Creek before: Mac printed my business card and the miniature chapbook "She Said" (see the What if your mother page), and Susan Bloom did terrific design work on a Judith-for-rent flyer plus a lovely & amazing two-sided program for the 2007 Grace Paley Celebration (a gift!). They've been working for many years with artists, writers, galleries and organizations in Portland; I'm happy and lucky to have collaborated with them on these word/art publications. Third in our series is a chapbook, 4th Period English (out in March, 2009).
Working with Mac Kieffer at Ash Creek Press, I made this signed & numbered edition of a folded broadside, five poems in an elegant little booklet printed on pale cream card stock. Mac chose the tiny fire from a set of possible cover drawings I'd brought in, and we decided to do it in red, shocking and delighting me. POEMS (like Family Business) is the result of collaborative deliberation. I'd worked with the folks at Ash Creek before: Mac printed my business card and the miniature chapbook "She Said" (see the What if your mother page), and Susan Bloom did terrific design work on a Judith-for-rent flyer plus a lovely & amazing two-sided program for the 2007 Grace Paley Celebration (a gift!). They've been working for many years with artists, writers, galleries and organizations in Portland; I'm happy and lucky to have collaborated with them on these word/art publications. Third in our series is a chapbook, 4th Period English (out in March, 2009).
- excerpt
The First True Thing
You’re sad to leave the first true thing
the first true thing you know won’t stay
it runs like water all down your life
rushes hot behind your heart
slides inside like dreams talking;
deep whispers in your mind will go
on telling that true thing.
That true thing will go down rocks
into ground on past deep winter
gone, but you can know it, you can
remember; use it to learn language
for listening, for seeing things
when they’re really there, yes
and when they’re not.
First published in Manzanita Quarterly, Winter 2001-2.
The First True Thing
You’re sad to leave the first true thing
the first true thing you know won’t stay
it runs like water all down your life
rushes hot behind your heart
slides inside like dreams talking;
deep whispers in your mind will go
on telling that true thing.
That true thing will go down rocks
into ground on past deep winter
gone, but you can know it, you can
remember; use it to learn language
for listening, for seeing things
when they’re really there, yes
and when they’re not.
First published in Manzanita Quarterly, Winter 2001-2.
- responses
Did you make this poem yourself? It's good!
— A farmer at the Portland Farmer's Market (after reading an excerpt)
Did you make this poem yourself? It's good!
— A farmer at the Portland Farmer's Market (after reading an excerpt)