For years, well honestly it’s probably been for a decade or more, I’ve wondered whether I could write from the spines of the books on our shelves. For some reason though, I never actually tried until this month and I can’t really explain why it has taken me so long.
A couple of weeks ago, I started pulling books down from the shelves, making my choices based on instinct and feeling. And then I began the process of sitting with these spines, to see what, if anything, would come of this ‘writing from spines’ process.
There are nine poems that have been written in this series and found is the first of these poems.
found playing in the randomness of memories beyond coincidence & before reading the vulnerable rustle of language tracing questions of history — the invisible, strange loop of delights site-writing the possible humming when things fall apart.
(Wednesday, November 30, 2022)
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The nine writing from spines poems currently exist as large format photographs.
I’ve also been working on a small bookwork, trying out different formats and layouts, and trying to figure out what feels right for these poems and this project. I’ll post more about my process and/or about the final bookwork, later on. It feels close but sometimes even when I feel like I’m getting close, a piece can be a long ways from done.
(Thursday, January 19, 2023)
