{ bee + spool }

“Hand Tools” art by Shari Arai DeBoer

Communique Tin hollers a raindrop’s clap. And stems of pens, the reach of a wooden 12-inch ruler, the watercolorist’s brushes, rattle in the can once marketed for the worker’s brew. Type heartily now; discern letter from carbon-copied invoice. Only ghosts, empty spaces and children clamber for news of your lover’s war by telegraph.

So, this poem written during a September 2007 Kundiman Fellows postcard poem exchange was inspired by fellow AAWAA board member and visual artist Shari Arai DeBoer’s work. “Hand Tools” appears on a blank postcard with her studio information. The poem was addressed to Kundiman Fellow Rona Luo. I am spending some hours this morning transcribing the poems, which were first written on postcards, transcribed by pen onto lined composition notebooks (from the Daiso Japan store in Daly City), and now saved onto my hard drive. Not an efficient process, but I tend to write on weekdays while away from the computer (on BART, outdoors during lunch). September has ended, and I am still dropping off postcards in the mail, while poet Oliver de la Paz, broadcasts to us from his blog.