The Rare Book Publisher Gives a Talk

On the second floor of the library, special collections hosted a talk by the rare book publisher about the future of book publishing, which was actually a talk about the past. He held up a book from 1508 and told us, don’t lay it down flat, just cradle it gently in your hand and turn the pages.

As he turned the pages, I noticed his hands shaking, slightly and barely noticeable at first, and then it was the only thing I could see. His hands, not out of nervousness but because of some essential tremor, fluttered with the pages, paper and skin flapping together to show us the twinned movements of language and fragility turning into each other. The sight sent us towards a center, brought our attentions to a focal point, but I couldn’t tell what was at the heart beating beneath the wings. Was it knowledge or was it pain I glimpsed at that moment, revealed and given life when set in motion like a cartoon strip of a deep and ancient secret? Knowledge or pain, which one?

I could hear the wind in the trees outside the library. I think it was pain, the deepest.

Grateful acknowledgements for the following publications:

“A Book” in Star 82 Review “Carsonville” in Mad Bunkers Review “Collagists’ Biography” in Artifice “Fire Away” as a monologue in the Maine Playwrights Festival 2013 “The Flavors of Loss” in StepAway Magazine “Four Sentences on the Thankful Arnold House” in Staccato and Uses of a Library chapbook (Ravenna Press) “Human Co.” in The Cordite Poetry Review “The Gatherer,” “Theme for a Tapestry,” and “Catapult” in Birkensnake 6: Thing Theory “Legend of a Small Boy” and “Pray Hill Road” in Flaneur Foundry “Letter” in Handsome “Map of the Provinces” in The Tangled Bank Anthology and Birkensnake 6: Thing Theory and Uses of a Library chapbook (Ravenna Press) “Me & Borges” and “Archive” in Uses of a Library chapbook (Ravenna Press) “Mexico City” and “The Visitors Book of Atwood Island” in Hobart “Need” in Ellipsis “Nest,” “Red,” “Chronic Tailbone Theory” and “Two Foxes” in Octopus Magazine “Notes on the Hunched Man” in The Harpoon Review “Officer Johnson,” “Eating People,” “His Life as a Librarian,” and “Uncle Barber” in The Café Review “On What the Landlord Found in the Janitor’s Vacant Apartment” in Fact-Simile “Proof” Runner Up for The Maine Postmark Poetry Contest 2017 “The Rare Book Publisher Gives a Talk” and “The Library of the Forest” as a part of Maine Public Radio’s Poems from Here “Sweet Virginia” in Ginosko “Teeth” in Tarpaulin Sky “The Middle Distance” in Quickfiction and Uses of a Library chapbook (Ravenna Press) “The Third Largest” in Unbroken and Uses of a Library chapbook (Ravenna Press)

“Trains to the Provinces,” “Me & Borges,” and “Archive” in Café Irreal “The Uses of a Library” in Kindred and Uses of a Library chapbook (Ravenna Press) “What’s Left to Judas” as a part of The Belfast Poetry Festival 2012

Much gratitude to the following for helping bring this book into the world: Lake Erie, David & Jen Keeling, Sarah Heller, The Authors Guild & The Authors League Fund, Emily Crocker Skyrm, Ben Hersey, Kevin Kilroy, Jamba Dunn, Elizabeth Guthrie, Christopher X. Ryan, Bhanu Kapil, Laird Hunt, I-Park Foundation, Alina Gallo, Metro North to Wassaic, Jorge Luis Borges, Southern Maine Community College, Bryan Strniste, Alex Rheault, Scott Navicky, Aurora Provisions, Abbot Hill, Arabica Coffee, Tom, Peppi & Sam Yanni, Carrie Scanga, Manset, Cate Marvin, Adrian Blevins, Colin Cheney, Mike Bove, Dave Stankiewicz, Kevin Sweeney, Kathy Hooke, Howard Rosenfield, Pat Mew, Charlie Cole, Megan Grumbling, Jeffrey Haste, Lyra & Peter Engel, my parents for so many years of support, and of course and always to Sarah.