…was the item I left in lieu of my presence for the Thursday night final colony reading. More information about the evening here from Rhona. I finally recharged the batteries to my camera and took a picture of my handy art work. The bark is from the cedar trees at St. Pete’s and the lines are wood planings. (I had some help with the wood planings from artist/restorer/musician Terry). They were tight curls at first, which I straightened, after dampening the wood, with my large-barrelled curling iron–I had to use what I could. The bark and lines are glued onto a liquor store bag.

Here is the sonnet:

One Last Sonnet

In this note I’ll just say that I’m leaving
I’m selling off those years as the farm,
nailing old letters and boards to the barn
announcing an auction of ill feeling.
Each year the flax and the wheat would not grow
and all the cows in the pasture have died.
Now you’ve confessed in my arms that you’ve lied
so I’m making a fuss even though
I’m certain you’ll know how to make do.
I really won’t stay but I’m pleased it is you
so falsely beseeching from the house
that I’m leaving. Goodbye and what a louse
you’ve been, is what I’ll proclaim really terse,
although, I confess simply: I was worse.

Collecting the bark and putting the piece together was fun. It kind of hides the fact that the sonnet is mediocre–to say the least. I might do more along the same lines with different kinds of paper and poems. Maybe I will do a show of poetic papering. Or not.