Monday, May 22, 2006

On the Way to NatureS

This past winter, going through a box of old photographs recovered from my mother's house, I came across a faded and cracking color eight by ten of the groom's party from my brother's wedding in 1971; the party, of course, included me, back from British Columbia for the summer. Not wanting to defame any of the other members of that crew, I've cropped it to leave just the guy you see on the left, the poet of NatureS about the time he began the first of the poems which make up the book. That day seems, certainly, quite a while back. Some friends who've known me only in the last ten years tell me that they can't see me in this photo at all, but I know for sure that I'm at least his more-revealed descendant, and every now and then I come across him when I'm digging into the language I (he could claim the same pronoun) still use.

For the reading last month, I actually thought I might make a photo mask from this image and wear it when I was reading from the older material in the book, just so folks would have some visual sense of the person whose statement and song they then heard. Perhaps for a future reading. But, for now, it's here.

Several have written to ask where they might buy the book. Thanks! It's available online now, with the convenience of a shopping interface, through SPD, and also from New Native Press. In Asheville, it's available from the Captain's Bookshelf at 31 Page Avenue, near the Grove Arcade, and at the Black Mountain College Museum + at 56 Broadway (each copy there and at Captain's is signed, if you're interested in that aspect of book collecting, and contains a flier from the Center reading in April or some other piece of cool stuff for the true collector). Malaprop's will have it at some point, I'd assume, since they've scheduled a reading in October, but they didn't have it as of yesterday. More about Malaprop's as the fall approaches. In the meantime ... how does it go? Yes, do buy the book, buy several copies, give them to friends! They'll make great gifts for the holiday of your choice! Etc.

Labels:

1 Comments:

Blogger Gordon Smith said...

Great Picture!

11:22 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home