One Lifetime Appearance In This Form

My literary life impinged on my work life a lot this week. The poet featured in the next issue of the online poetry magazine M.S. and I publish came by the library with visuals to accompany the issue: retablo portraits of poets, the painted blocks of wood carefully wrapped in tissue, some with verses on the face of the block, or the back, or one of the margins. I went in early the next morning to scan them on the scanner in my office.

And I made several quick trips across downtown on hypothetical lunch breaks to see the proofs of my broadside. This winter S. V. acquired '80 drawers of type and tons of paper all gotten from the retirement of Michael Gregory in Bisbee, AZ.' She has sublet three-quarters of her former bookstore space to a gallery, and reconstituted herself as Counting Coup Press in the remaining room. She offered a contest, write a one-page composition on the subject 'Things That Want To Be Counted'. It appealed to me as an assignment, instantly I began to make a list; and in a moment of friendliness, no more ('Ah this was fun, thanks'), sent it to her. I won the prize, which is to have it be printed on a Broadside.

Not what I meant at all but yes, thank you. In my persona as the poets' techie I've been producing an online poetry broadside since 1998, and by golly now I get to be a broadside. It's huge, it's gorgeous, it's not a whole lot like what I wrote except that the words she's riffing on in many sizes and arrangements of letters are mine. I loved seeing it backwards in the chase (which I hope is the right word). Picking up some copies up Monday afternoon. I want heaps, they are my one lifetime appearance in this form.