Each envelope contains the research material and drafts for a single poem in Wavelengths of Your Song. I gathered a broad range of information including a photograph of a gold miner working underground, notes on the dietary habits of migratory songbirds, musical scores, emails from composer Frederic Rzewski, photographs I took of law-of-the-sea-expert Elisabeth Mann Borgese and her dogs, scribbles on the back of grocery receipts, a dried poppy, concert programs, photocopies of art by Copper Thunderbird/Norval Morrisseau, notes from a conversation with an astrophysicist, maps, my translations of poems by Paul Celan and Gerrit Achterberg, a dried gingko leaf and lots more. For some poems I only have a few drafts. Often I link together impressions and images that I’ve carried in my thoughts for years and the drafts for these poems are brief especially if I’ve written the poem in my mind during a walk. I love opening these envelopes to see what spills out.
Wavelengths of Your Song has been translated into German as
translated by Knut Birkholz and published by Parasitenpresse, Cologne
(the book launch is scheduled during the time of the Frankfurt Book Fair).