Week 32: Laundry Poem

   Mysterious and surprising...moving and static.. poetic and plebian...all those adjectives apply to this week's book-of-the-week, Laundry Poem. Created as an example book for an upcoming class, this stiff leaf book is a drop side box with a poem written on the inside walls.

Marbled paper, Japanese paper, and bookcloth on the cover

When the top is removed, all four sides fall to the table...

Looking down... what's inside?

and inside is the poem, Laundry Poem, written by Rachel Steinsberger, and the surprise.

Peeking in... anticipation as the walls fall down

all bound up, tied up, connected, made one...

sides laying flat, the laundry stands in the middle...

 This is the what's written inside...

Laundry Poem

lifting the lid of the washer

coin operated

in the basement

sunlight fighting against 

the dirty window

A feeling passed over me

clothing twisted together

a blue sweater arm embracing

a bleeding denim leg. 

the light load

woven with things that 

shouldn’t even be there

nylons, bras, yesterday’s change. 

Everything

worn monday past two

maybe three sundays is now

a large mass of oneness

like Pandora's box, anything could be inside!

   Books are like that... anything can be inside... and the different ways information...communication is expressed is all wrapped up in the term book. Within the covers of a book can be any sort of information... any sort of imagery. ....A novel, a textbook, a bible, a book of poetry, a photograph album, a list of assets, debits and receipts... or just blank space...  And the shapes of books aren't always the standard rectangular tome with a spine and flipping pages. Books can be scrolls, can be single leaves stacked and stored within a special box or envelope...some can be flipped and twisted, or folded out into a series of zigzag pages or waving leaves... yet still be a book. The definition of a book is nebulous. This little book doesn't look like a typical book.. so, is it still a book? What constitutes a book? ...a spine:? a cover? ...pages that turn? ...a plot?  a story? ..a theme? all those things? or only some? I think it's all wrapped up together, somehow, one part bleeding onto the other... just a... book.