Last week I made a trip into Toronto to read with Guy Ewing at the Field Trip Cafe. We belatedly launched his autumn 2017 chapbook ocean in a cell. A few weeks before our reading, I contacted Guy and asked him to send me a single poem that I could publish. I wanted to make something quick and simple that we could give out for free at the reading. He sent me his poem Book of Cedar and I sat with it for a while trying to figure out the best way to publish it.
Initially I wanted to create something like a bookmark, or a postcard... something that I could make 100 copies of in an evening. But the longer I sat with this poem, the more it spoke to me, and I felt like the poem was directing me toward something else.
The poem itself reads:
book of cedar
sways across the sun
page
page
The 'pages' in this poem really pushed me toward making a small booklet in which each 'page' gets its own page. To me, it felt like the poem Book of Cedar needed become a book itself.
I rummaged through my stacks of paper and card stock. I found a textured green card stock for the cover, something that would speak to the tree in this poem. I also found a package of rice paper that I'd purchased in Montreal 3 years ago, but never found the right project for. The rice paper is lovely, because it adds a level of transparency, so the poem's original layout can still be seen. The paper is very delicate though, and required cutting by hand, rather than my usual guillotine paper cutter. It was a long process to measure and cut the sheets down to size, but it was also a quiet, methodical process, giving me time to ponder the poem and really appreciate it.
The stamping process was easier than expected. I was worried that the paper might not take the ink very well, but each stamp came out clean, with very minimal bleeding. To keep with the minimalist nature of the book, I tucked the publishing information on the inside the back cover, as close to the spine as I could, to keep from cluttering up the pages.
Lastly, since the poem and book had now become one, I wanted something to house the poem-object in. I have a giant stack of envelopes that I thought might be useful, and to my surprise, with only one cut, the book fit in perfectly.
As a publisher and book-maker, it's a real joy to find work that speaks to you. In this case my initial concepts for the publication were entirely shifted because of the poem itself. It's great to work with someone who is so open to this kind of collaboration, someone who is equally as excited to see their work become physical, and something vastly different from their expectations.
Book of Cedar can be purchased for $4.50 + shipping on our CHAPBOOKS page.
Initially I wanted to create something like a bookmark, or a postcard... something that I could make 100 copies of in an evening. But the longer I sat with this poem, the more it spoke to me, and I felt like the poem was directing me toward something else.
The poem itself reads:
book of cedar
sways across the sun
page
page
The 'pages' in this poem really pushed me toward making a small booklet in which each 'page' gets its own page. To me, it felt like the poem Book of Cedar needed become a book itself.
I rummaged through my stacks of paper and card stock. I found a textured green card stock for the cover, something that would speak to the tree in this poem. I also found a package of rice paper that I'd purchased in Montreal 3 years ago, but never found the right project for. The rice paper is lovely, because it adds a level of transparency, so the poem's original layout can still be seen. The paper is very delicate though, and required cutting by hand, rather than my usual guillotine paper cutter. It was a long process to measure and cut the sheets down to size, but it was also a quiet, methodical process, giving me time to ponder the poem and really appreciate it.
The stamping process was easier than expected. I was worried that the paper might not take the ink very well, but each stamp came out clean, with very minimal bleeding. To keep with the minimalist nature of the book, I tucked the publishing information on the inside the back cover, as close to the spine as I could, to keep from cluttering up the pages.
Lastly, since the poem and book had now become one, I wanted something to house the poem-object in. I have a giant stack of envelopes that I thought might be useful, and to my surprise, with only one cut, the book fit in perfectly.
As a publisher and book-maker, it's a real joy to find work that speaks to you. In this case my initial concepts for the publication were entirely shifted because of the poem itself. It's great to work with someone who is so open to this kind of collaboration, someone who is equally as excited to see their work become physical, and something vastly different from their expectations.
Book of Cedar can be purchased for $4.50 + shipping on our CHAPBOOKS page.
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