SUMMER AND FIRES AND POEMS AND BOOKS — OH MY!

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BORDER FAIRY TALE

There was a time a trip across the border

for a meal or a night out was no big deal.

Now you can arrive with every document you own —

driver’s permit, passport, birth certificate, marriage license,

sworn affidavit that the kids are yours —

and still you may be denied.

What to do about the fire that jumped the border

at Pend d’Oreille, no declaration whatsoever,

no documents from either side,

just another refugee from the north

headed south for the winter.

Wrote that poem a few Augusts ago, for the poetry postcard exchange that's now in its 11th year. Some things don't change.

We haven't had rain in I don't remember when, there are water restrictions and campfire bans all over the province, and both the sun and the moon appear as balls of orange in the sky. It's ever so smokey in these parts, thanks to forest fires in various parts of the province as well as Washington State south of us. 

One of the fire-fighting helicopters heading for the airport

Consequently, I'm happy to be spending time in the basement where I play with paper. I've been busy sewing journals for the Columbia Basin Studio Tour this weekend when Ted and I will both have our studios open to the public. Here's a great article about  the tour in the Castlegar News.

If you're in the area we'd love to see you. If you're too far away, here's a glimpse of what you're missing!

Ted has been busy turning and oiling and creating a display for his beautiful creations 

Where it all began. In 2001 I saw this little Coptic bound book at the gift shop at the Quarry Arts Centre in Whangerei, New Zealand, and I had to learn how to make one. I was taking a paper-making class at the time. Until then, I'd always thought of paper as something you wrote on. I just looked up the book artist online — her name is Mary MacArthur — and lo and behold, she's in Canada! I just sent her a thank-you note. Check out her website, aptly called Those Great Little Books.

The first of these happened at an artist collaboration event in NZ in 2001. I call them "haiku-scapes", although the little poems aren't technically haiku. More like senyru. 

Some of my books. No two the same!

The guestbook is made from PR postcards 

Examples of other kinds of binding

My work station

How to make a book

My book press. And there's a lot of paper hiding behind that Mexican Amate paper I love.

Nose in Book's publishing display

In other news, Big Pond Rumours has three of my poems in its latest E-Zine and you can read them here. Editor of the micro press, Sharon Berg, is currently fundraising to buy a new, heavy-duty printer so she can continue to produce chapbooks without killing her printer. If you have a few dollars you can send her way, here's the link. 

And now, back to work! Thanks, as always, for reading.

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