The Times on The Art of Typesetting

photo from Wikimedia Commons

Bibliophiles and lovers of all things printed: Go read this fascinating story at the New York Times.

Makin' Copies

the way cut and paste used to be

If you were out for an early morning walk on my street this week, so early that the sun hadn't yet risen, you may have seen a lamp burning in a corner window of my house. I was at my desk in the glow of that lamp, in the sweet, quiet hours of pre-dawn. I was not doing any of the following:

1. ordering gifts
2. preparing holiday cards
3. wrapping presents
4. planning holiday menus
5. stringing popcorn
6. baking cookies
7. etc, etc, etc

What I was doing is this: Going through my file folder labeled 'handouts.' Cutting poems and poet bios out. Arranging them on a piece of paper. Taping them down. Jotting down notes and attributions. Makin' copies (anyone else remember that skit from Saturday Night Live?).

This is a little labor of love I have going on. When I see a poem that I think is (a) wonderful, (b) interesting, (c) particularly well-crafted, (d) about to take off the top of my head, (e) stirring something inside for me that I need to write about, or (f) all of the above, I print it out and drop it in my handouts file. After I have a handful of poems gathered up, I take out the scissors and tape, and start cutting and pasting. Literally. I know there must be an electronic way to do this, but I love the old, analog method -- it makes me feel close to the paper and the poems. After I've cut and pasted all the poems and bios, I make a few copies. Then I send the handout to two of my poetry buddies. The idea is to read these poems, study them, learn from them, and use them as jumping-off points for new, original work.

[A note about copyright: I've done some research and I think I'm in the clear with copyright laws/fair use, since the handouts are intended for educational purposes and provide no economic gain to me.]

I learned the handout concept from my excellent former teacher, Deborah Keenan. Up until now, I've sent out only a few handouts to only a few people. But I would like to offer the handouts to anyone who wants one. Maybe you are a teacher that would like to use them in class. Maybe you're always looking for new (or new-to-you) poets to read and study. Maybe you are just a person who would like to have a few poems sprinkled into your days from time to time, or to learn a little bit of poetry. If you'd like a copy of the handouts, send me a message at mollycspencer (at) gmail (dot) com and I will send one to you each time I make one (which is, so far, about once a quarter). The stamp's on me.

Hooray for spreading the poems, hooray for poetry!

Sunday Words: Marie Howe and Kay Ryan

Dear Universe, thank you for public radio.

In a little twist on the usual Sunday words, here are links to two interviews: one with Marie Howe, and the other with Kay Ryan.

I almost choked when Terry Gross introduced Marie Howe as a "little-known poet." But I was glad to hear Marie Howe interviewed, and especially liked hearing her talk about the poem she'd been trying to write for twenty years. It gives me hope for a few of my resting poems that I just can't let go of. Here's the interview.

And here is Michael Krasny of KQED interviewing Kay Ryan. I am always encouraged by her later-in-life success, and I like the bit of rebel streak in her (have you ever read her essay, 'I Go to AWP '?). Best quote from the interview (I am paraphrasing): Michael Krasny asks Kay Ryan if she reads much contemporary poetry. She says 'No,' -- pause -- 'Kind of a conversation stopper isn't it?'



(Image is public domain from wikimedia commons).

And the winner is...

Thanks to everyone who wrote on the topic of hometowns. I enjoyed reading your responses.

CitricSugar will receive a copy of Nina Lindsay's Today's Special Dish. I wish I knew how to put that nifty little random number generator widget on this post, but I don't and the children will need breakfast soon.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Public Service Announcement: The Poet Jane Hirshfield on KQED

Michael Krasny will interview the poet Jane Hirshfield this morning on KQED, 10 o'clock Pacific time. Click on this link for more information. Click on this link to listen live at 10:00 PDT.

A Sucker for Love Letters, and My "Who Knew?" Moment

Reader,

I'm a sucker for any kind of letter, especially the kind that arrive in my very own mailbox. And I'm a sucker for love letters, usually love letters that arrived in other people's mailboxes as Husband is not much one to pick up a pen but often comes home with chocolate and ice cream (a fair swap in my book). Anyway, somewhere in the infinity that is the Internet, I came across this online exhibit at the UK's National Army Museum. It's a collection of letters between soldiers and sweethearts and I got lost in love letters last night reading through the exhibit. It's all there from heartwarming to heartbreaking. Take a look if you're a letter lover, too.  (Edited to say: I realized the place I found the link to this exhibit is at the Motherlode blog of the New York Times.  I am not going to link to Motherlode because, I confess, I fear Motherlode and want to remain in total obscurity vis-a-vis Motherlode; but if you want to find it just google "motherlode new york times").

And now for the Who Knew Moment. I've lost sleep over this one. I had the most excellent typing teacher in high school, Mrs. J. (she also happened to be the mom of a friend of mine). She put our nose to the grindstone gently but firmly and we learned that keyboard faster than fast. I still use her proofreading trick: read it backwards. I can still hear her voice in my head: "A space AA space..."  Well, anyway, of course I learned to put two spaces after a period like we all did. And I have just learned that since the dawning of computers I've been doing it wrong. From what I can tell, it has something to do with the fact that typewriters could allow only for the same amount of whitespace around each letter, but computers, with true type fonts, can allow for different amounts of whitespace around different letters (e.g, capitals).  Therefore the double-space after a period is not needed when keyboarding on a computer. (BTW, I'm sure I'm simplifying this and using all the wrong terminology, but you get the idea. Learn more here.).

I'm sure Mrs. J. already knows about this and maybe you do, too, but I did not get the memo on this one! And I have a bazillion poems with a gillion-bazillion ".  "s in them.  Can you say Find and Replace? Husband assures me he can write a script to find the .double-spaces and change them into .single-spaces in one push of the go button. I think I'm just shocked to know that I, lover of all things written, typed, and keyboarded, had absolutely no idea about this.

Happy letter reading and writing, and remember: one space after the period (unless you're still using your trusty old typewriter).