desperately seeking Zukofsky

well, not 'desperately' really, but I've been trying to locate the (or an) exact quote from Louis Zukofsky where he wrote, or is said to have written, or I half-remembered that he did write or someone said he wrote, that somehow, all one's life one (or the poet) writes just one poem - if anyone can direct me to a direct quotation from Zukofsky's writings where he writes such a thing, please let me know - many thanks. . . 

the book-in-a-box

at last the book is made, and all the orders will have been sent out by the end of today - of the 26 copies for sale there are just 8 left - buyers in the US should contact Vamp and Tramp for copies HERE - and Antipodeans should get in touch with me - 

and here's a closer look at the type, especially to the outline of Eusebius - 

fragment from Crankhandle

what you’ve written

will resist you

what you have resisted

will rewrite you

can you say yes to it

can you say no to it

two birds screech

left to right

overhead

he has always been

a long way

from home

"please retain the deckles"

or, something like that, said to have been said by William Morris to a binder who, in turn, chopped off the deckles and kept them nicely in a separate packet to return to Mr Morris - so, if what's good enough for him is good enough for me, here are the deckles !  -  actually, I cut them off because, in the next book I'm printing, most of the material on the rectos is the same, and if I kept the outer deckle on the sheet I'd have to reset the form on the press each time I wanted to print on the other side of the sheet - but with straight edges on both sides of the sheets, I can simply flop the sheet over to print on the other side. . . in any case, it's a nice opportunity for me to announce, however slyly, that there's another book coming up and that the paper is (some) vintage Barcham Green India Office, and (some) Ruscombe Mill India Office - I've had the Barcham Green now for some 20 to 25 years, and have used it just once in the special edition of New Zealand poet Kendrick Smithyman's poem Tomorata at the Holloway Press at the University of Auckland back in 1996 - anyway, behold ! the deckles -

another fragment from Testamenta

song sauntered into him between

         the notes of short & long

from where does what word spring

         to mind         you can’t know anything

about the simplest flower         in this

         midday blue so dark you expect

to see stars         Rembrandt’s lion still poised

         and nonchalant after all these years

silent entry of four white pink-faced

         geese into the lake         with a memory

ticket marked everything hanging from

         your neck         reading withdraws

from him         voices of the dead bellowing

         at you from all sides

pictures for Picture Day

Miriam has kindly taken pictures of the last of the print-runs for Kyle's Picture Day, the sheets laid out to dry, and the other sheets stacked ready for collating - in various lights, angles etc - the sheets will be sewn this weekend and orders will be invoiced and sent out next week -

from Testamenta

weird thing about the blog is that it can only 'publish' a serial poem backwards, bit by bit - but here beginneth Testamenta, some of which appeared in the Australian version of Jacket, and some was read at St Mark's Poetry Project in New York (a shared reading with Fanny Howe) a couple of years ago, and some now will appear here. . . 

whatever done         by one’s own hand

         sky closes for day         opens for night

one-winged         one-eyed         what object

         under the sun         suing a one-sided

axiom of grief         how different it was

         on your return         silver gulls fly out

of cloud into cloud at day’s

         end         to have caught yourself

at the few times when your shadow

         is equal to your height         with

turtledove’s single wing spread out

         to dry        I         Nicolas Jenson

alien & printer of books         Venice

         September 1480         hold one arm

out over his death         it’s not

         possible to change the subject

from the Adventure & Art show

sadly, the Adventure & Art : the fine press book from 1450 to 2011 exhibition has now come down at the Baillieu Library in Melbourne - but my friend Bruno Leti took some nice photos of it and here are some of them, sans captions - 

The books to come paper-back'd

to my great pleasure this small collection of essays/assays on the material and what the wondrous Rochelle Altman calls the 'immediate metaphor' or 'first level abstraction' that is the book in its making and its use and in how to think about them, is now available in paperback from publisher Cuneiform Press - the price is great at US$21.95 - buy it now (!) from H E R E 

there is also a lovely review of the book by Roger Horrocks, to be found H E R E

Picture Day - voiced

Kyle Schlesinger reads his Picture Day on the online magazine The Volta - 
seeing/hearing is possible here

New book from Nawakum Press

one of the great pleasures of being a printer/poet is that I get at times to be printed by printers other than myself - just out now is a new book of my poetry, In a single gesture, published by David Pascoe at his Nawakum Press in Santa Rosa, California - designed by Jason Dewinetz, with calligraphy by Judy Detrick, printed by the legendary Patrick Reagh, and bound by John DeMerritt - it can be viewed at the Nawakum website here - 

Picture Day on the move

this blog too is on the move after a hiatus - busy getting Codex Australia founded, shaped & incorporated - & printing also has been put aside, but now Kyle Schlesinger's Picture Day is in production, the boxes have arrived, and here's Kyle signing the colophon sheets in Austin, Texas, before sending them off to me in Melbourne for sewing -

Adventure & Art

Aventur und Kunst is what Johann Gutenberg - Johnny Goodhill, or, if your take his given name Johann Gensfleisch, Johnny Gooseflesh - is reputed to have called the art of printing - and is title of the Melbourne exhibition & symposium to be launched Friday 9 March - among the distinguished guests will be Jorge Alberto Lozoya, Mexican Ambassador to Malaysia, who was pivotal in developing CODEX MEXICO, an affiliate body to the CODEX FOUNDATION - Jorge will talk at the symposium on how Codex Mexico was set up, to honor & spread the word on the hand-made book in that part of the world - 


here's the front cover of the exhibition catalog, 48 pages, in full color - the cover woodcut is by John Ryrie, and is from Pelican Poems by Adrian Rawlins, printed by John Ryrie at his Incunabula Press, Melbourne 1997 -

wood type in Australia

this image blatantly filched from the website of Sylvan Type Works of Nicholas Summers of Plum Letterpress in New South Wales, with occasional help from Sue Anderson of Impediment Press - Sylvan Type Works can provide wood type -


Manufactured using traditional and modern methods and materials.
New typefaces, historical revivals and exploratory projects.
Complete founts, missing characters and replacement sorts.
Specimens and occasional publications issued.


(this news came from Jurgen Wegner's Brandywine Newsletter (about printing, printed ephemera, type, books etc. . . to be on Jurgen's mailing list email him here

Centre for the Book at Otago

the new Centre for the Book at the University of Otago has just launched its website - the aims of the Centre are - or better, go to its website here

As a Centre we interpret ‘book’ broadly to encompass every aspect of written or printed communication, including physical representations and the cultural impact of the written word.

The Centre for the Book aims to:

• Enhance the wide range of book-centred activities that take place throughout Dunedin
• Emphasize Dunedin’s rich cultural heritage in print, as producer, consumer, and preserver of books
• Encourage research in all facets of the book (in its broadest sense) by utilizing the diverse resources available
• Promote interaction and communication on the book within the University of Otago, and other local, national and international institutions.

here's one view from the University's Otakou Press which has an active Printer in Residence program (with the present writer as the 2008 PiR -