Sit With Moi!: Fondness for Foundness

Sunday, May 26, 2013

WAKE UP! by E.R. TABIOS

THE AWAKENING: A Long Poem Triptych & Poetics Fragment (theenk books, New York, 2013) is my latest book. At some point, I had a tiny reproduction of its front cover image -- a painting by the very talented jenifer wofford -- and printed it out. I had in mind to do a mini-book using that small reproduction. Well, I did! And while it shares imagery with THE AWAKENING's front cover, it's not quite the same. My mini-book is entitled WAKE UP! as the image focuses on the three faces with closed eyes:

The cover has flaps so, actually, when you unfold the flaps, you see more of the context, the original cover to THE AWAKENING. Here's the front cover with unfolded flaps and back cover:

The mini-book has one long accordion-style page. When you open the book, the first thing you see is this folded page bearing the instructions, "Pull for Instructions."

When you pull open the page, you then see the text:

Open the flaps

To uncover

The Real Picture

To Read

A Book

Is to discover
A World

Is to AWAKE--

See

The Revelations

Of former secrets!

Now:

ACT!

So where shall we "shelve" this book? Well, why not on the transparent Philippe Starck's "Ghost Chair"! Because when you look at this chair, you still see or "discover / A World"!

Sunday, January 27, 2013

A FONDNESS FOR FOUNDNESS: A POETICS

Everyone is invited to "Books on Chairs" but I also am making books for this project. What's been surprising is how I've taken so quickly to making the type of books I'm creating: books based on what randomly surfaces in my environment (e.g. the junk mail I receive) rather than based on something I intend to write about. Now I'm realizing that these tiny books are just another extension of my long-held poetics practice of wishing "to write in the world in the poem" versus relying on the constraints of my "I" -- and "eye." Of course, in creating works this way, one hopes that one's "I" -- and "eye" -- are also widened in expanse and vision. One hopes ... anyway, here, to date, are books reflecting my fondness for foundness (click on the titles below for more info). If the named author is someone else instead of Moi, it's because I "edited" that person's book into its tiny being. (They are listed in reverse chronological order of their making. I will update this list as I generate more books--you can click on its link to the right under "Empty Chair Poetry" if you want to follow it.)

RECIPES: 3 POSTCARD POEMS by Amanda Laughtland