Welcome to Longhouse's bibliography (Part Two), covering 35 years of steady publications. The press was created by Bob Arnold in 1971, the year he was drafted by the Army and stationed with Conscientious Objector status in southern Vermont during the last gruesome stages of the Vietnam War. Bob was heading there anyway ... being employed by a brotherly minister of the local Episcopal church, and therein was found the key to Longhouse's future: the church offices held an AB Dick mimeograph machine, & the rest is history.

1990. Arnold, Bob, editor. A Longhouse Reader / Autumn 1990.

175 copies. Printed by Bob and Susan Arnold. "Thank you to Jane in Colorado, Jim in New Rochelle, David in northern Vermont, and Charlie in the Berkshires; Bobby of El Paso and Mike who sent a sheaf of Chinese translations from Taiwan, Franco ever Switzerland, Jeffrey in Boston, Janine between Peru and Czechosolovakia, Thomas via Eck Finlay and all of Scotland, & Bill standing in Oregon rain." 13 loose 8-1.2 x 11 sheets in letterpress decorative envelope. Contributors include anonymous from China, Franco Beltrametti, Jane Brakhage, David Budbill, Bobby Byrd, Thomas A. Clarke, Bill Deemer, Charles H. Miller, Jules Supervielle, Janine Pommy Vega and James Weil. Printed on the outside flap of envelope, a poem by Bill Deemer.

: I see my original introduction stated above already says it all. This was the first change from the usual Longhouse issues coming in colored wraps and now folded and tucked into offset printed envelopes. A great guy by the name of Bob Nackoul did these for us from his print shop in Lenoxdale, MA.

1990. Arnold, Bob, editor. Longhouse / Autumn 1990.

100 copies printed by Bob and Susan Arnold at Longhouse, Vermont. Photocopied. The issue is illustrated sheets of collage and poetry in letterpress envelope. Contributors include Anonymous from China, Franco Beltrametti, Jane Brakhage, David Budbill, Bobby Byrd, Thomas A. Clark, Bill Deemer, Charles H. Miller, Jules Supervielle, Janine Pommy Vega, James L. Weil.

:"Anonymous from China" was c/o Mike O'Connor right after the uprising in Tianamen Square. Supervielle I would publish all the time asking for alternating translators. Franco Beltrametti was brought to our house once by Jim Koller and probably came through the mail via Cid. Franco knew everyone, everyone knew Franco. Thomas A. Clark was this absolute quiet wonder introduced to me many times over the years by my own findings of his books, and then someone mentioning his name, and then someone else, and finally Eck Finlay visited from Scotland and insisted I should have Tom in with Longhouse. Eck made it happen.More's to come. Charlie Miller knew Auden, wrote a short biography of his life and some Audeneque poems not so hot. His introduction to the pocketbook edition of B. Traven's "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" is the real deal, as was a lot of his life. One of these guys that would disappear to Mexico for stretches 50-60-70s. He started a bookshop in Greenfield, MA.called "The World Eye" that is still there but nothing close to Charlie's haven. He stayed in the same old town with a bookstore and moved three times, even surviving a fire. In 1971 I walked in and found all the new commune books local to the area, complete Thoreau (the then colossal Dover cloth edition of his "Journals") plus poetry by Jack Spicer, Lew Welch, Zukofsky and someone up and coming by the name of Bukowski.Charlie was of the old school: a devilish womanizer, Jeffers heroic, rural living intellect and in his last years I'd catch him walking the small town streets with a book bag over his shoulder, lanky hair and with the most mischievous grin on Susan.A poet from UMass once made the mistake in my company while holding court at a school assembly at using Charlie's inventive personality as a chump. Charlie as Charlie could bury this poet without even opening a book.

1990. Arnold, Bob, editor. Longhouse / Winter 1989-90.

250 copies printed by Bob and Susan Arnold at Longhouse, Vermont. Photocopied. With this issue, Longhouse began its third decade of publishing. The issue is 34 illustrated sheets of collage and poetry. Contributors include Barbara Moraff, George Evans, Clive Faust, Gary Hotham, William Virgil Davis, Cid Corman, John Perlman, Phyllis Walsh, Bill Bathurst, Janine Pommy Vega, Stuart Friebert, Doc Dachtler, Edouard Roditi, Marcel Cohen, Gary Lawless, Franco Beltrametti, James Koller, Bill Deemer, Drummond Hadley, Keith Wilson, Theodore Enslin, Bobby Byrd, Bob Arnold, Gary Metras, Morin Sorescu, Adriana Varga, M. J. Bender, Tad Richards, Barry Sternlieb, David Giannini, Linda Serrato.

: I remember Tad Richard sending a wild poem - had to have it. Sierra builder Doc Dachtler always has great stories & poems. From France both Edouard Roditi & Marcel Cohen were wonders to receive; Cid Corman translated Marcel. Drummond Hadley gave us a long poem masterpiece that we heard him read some years later in Cooperstown, NY. Nothing at all to do with baseball. That deep long line of names: Beltrametti, Koller, Deemer, Hadley, Wilson, Enslin, Byrd: all friends of friends of friends and each rolling one time or another or permanent in the wild west. This was Keith Wilson's first showing with Longhouse - so many fine books from Grove, Clark City, Sumac, Kayak, Salt Works.Same with Bobby Byrd of today's Cinco Puentos Press. A poem from Bobby is that one that gottaway from you, he wrote it instead. Poets, again, from western Massachusetts: Giannini, Sternlieb, Metras. Jan Bender worked poetry and rural life farming off a tip of northern Vermont at this time. She has excellent work hidden away in small press pages. Clive Faust came from down under - one of Cid Corman's closest allies in the last decades - and there are only a few books of Clive's published, each a keeper.

 

1990. Brakhage, Jane. "Ground Life".

Fourteen 8 1/2 x 11 folded sheets, illustrated. 200numbers printed by Bob and Susan Arnold at Longhouse through the 1992-1993 seasons. Folded into a decorative letterpress envelope and signed by writer Jane Brakhage.

: this was the best, though slight, that I could round up and afford to do of Jane's remarkable prose. Like I said, it should be a marvelous size book of stories and fables. One to hand down.

1990. Koller, James. Natural Order.

1/400 copies. Stapled wraps with dustjacket Signed by the poet. Prose and art by the poet James Koller.

:Jim Koller is also an artist and photographer. This was something new Jim wanted me to look at, and I said "yes".Both of us always liked the looks of the softcover books Cape/Grossman produced with a paper dustjacket and we followed suit with this title. Jim published my "Go West" a little earlier much the same way.

1991. Arnold, Bob and Vega, Janine Pommy. "The Face of A Dictator" / "American Flags".

Limited two 75 copies mailed in black to friends of Longhouse celebrating one more false victory of peace, late Winter 1991, Green River, Vermont. Three sheets photocopied of these two poets folded into jet black wrappers with small red seal. Signed by both poets.

:the monsters took us to war and the poets have a response. Janine wrote "American Flags" after one more of her visits to New York City and looking around and listening. I wrote "The Face of a Dictator" thinking of Pinochet, but take your pick on the evil-doers. We signed everything when visiting one another.

1991. Byrd, Bobby. The News from Armegeddon.

75 numbered copies. Folded sheets of five poems in envelope. Poems written during the first strike of The Gulf War.

:Bobby also had something to say about the same shitty war.

1991. Corman, Cid. "Afterword as Preface".

Broadside; limited to 100 issues, numbered and signed by the poet; 5" x11" as letterpress printed by Greg Joly for Longhouse.

: Cid Corman was coming from Japan to Cooper Union, New York City for a period of lectures and readings. He invited us down and we came in a borrowed suv from the US Ski Team, or so our driver said.Lyle Glazier made us his guest and put us up for a night or two at The Algonquin Hotel, where Cid & Shizumi rested.I remember a long walk through Central Park with Cid where he thought all the rats were squirrels. He checked his glasses, we had a laugh.Before leaving Vermont we worked out with good friend Greg Joly to have a broadside printed of one of Cid's poems, which he would sign for us in the city. The poem is actually the last word/or first to Cid's five volume masterwork "Of".

1991. Finlay, Ian Hamilton. I Sing for the Muses and Myself.

Edited and designed by Alec Finlay in collaboration with Bob and Susan Arnold. 1/400 copies shared between Longhouse, United States, and Morning Star Press, Scotland. Two decorative fold-out folios including a drawing by Jack Sloan of Finlay's Little Sparta, his home in Scotland which has a 21 piece key designed to identify each location. Also writing by Ian Hamilton Finlay and drawings by Walter Miller with a long appreciation essay by R. C. Kenedy, first published in "Art International" March 1973 and a work between Ian Hamilton Finlay and drawings by Michael Harvey of sundials. Held within a decorative letterpress envelope.

:these were good times, having Ian H amilton Finlay's son Alec visit us. He was coming from Scotland with plans to visit a beeline of Bob, Susan and Carson, then on a bus to be with Bob Creeley in Buffalo and I'm sure many others inbetween before reaching Barry Lopez in Oregon. I seem to remember a dreamy postcard from Eck (Alec) after his visit to DH Lawrence's gravesite in outer Taos. He traveled from his plane landing in Boston to us via Jim Koller who was coming our way.Eck had all sorts of notebooks and plans and the work of his father, plus Thomas A. Clark, that eventually he put into our hands. The above title is a visual treat decorated by Ian and others and published by Eck's Morning Star Press & Longhouse. A true meeting of the minds.Ian later signed a bunch for us and sent them over like a real buddy.

1991. Glazier, Lyle. "Searching for Amy".

Seven loose sheets illustrated. With an afterword by Lyle Glazier. 135 numbers printed by Bob and Susan Arnold at Longhouse through the 1991-92 seasons. In decorative letterpress envelope.

:"Amy" was Lyle's beloved wife. A bisexual man tormented by his true loves and losses.

1991. Goodman, Lila. Moments.

Fold out broadside. Limited to 75 copies. Photocopied and edited by Bob Arnold.

 

:as I recall Lila Goodman's manuscript arrived from California neat as a pin. I may have dropped a few poems out, but it was printed almost within the hour and sent back to her, one sheet folded simply.

1992. [Cohen, Marcel] Corman, Cid, translator. "The Peacock Emperor Moth".

8 1/2 x 11 folded sheets, illustrated. 135 numbers printed by Bob and Susan Arnold at Longhouse through the 1992-1993 seasons. Loose sheets folded into a decorative letterpress envelope and signed by the translator Cid Corman

:Cid sent this to me, and it was perfect. We printed it up, and I believe Bob Nackoul did the offset envelope. Burning Deck later picked it up and expanded it a bit. It's ideal Marcel.

1992. Niedecker, Lorine. A Cooking Book.

Wraps with letterpress cover and crisp text throughout. Limited to 250 copies. So far, not gathered up into any of the poet's major collected works. Scarce.

:Wisconsin backwater idyllic, as conversations between the poet and her husband as to meals & dishes. Nothing like it, and LN was versed in making many of her own small books by her own hand. This was one we did. Michael Hanish helped us typeset this one since he was a neighbor with a computer we had yet to own. We ran it off, cut all the pages, handbound, and Greg Joly said, "Sure I'll make up some covers for you." Cid was Lorine's literary executor and he handed it all to us in the first place. His practice was unorthodox, genuine, and everlasting.When I finally reached Fort Atkinson and peered into the class cabinet of some of Lorine's personal books at the friendly town library, there was a copy of "A Cooking Book" , at home.

1993. Arnold, Bob and Susan, editors. "Toward A Text". Writers and Readers List Their Favorite Books, Music and Films.

With an opening introductory essay by Bob Arnold. 150 numbers published by Bob and Susan Arnold in the Fall of 1993. Twenty illustrated pages with contributors ranging from Michael Andre, Susan Arnold, Franco Beltrametti, Peter Berg, Tom Bridwell, Bob Buckeye, David Budbill, Clifford Burke, Bobby Byrd, Hayden Carruth, Olga Cabral, Marcel Cohen, Byron Coley, Cid Corman, Doc Dachtler, Bill Deemer, Jim Dodge, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Bill Dwight, Theodore Enslin, Clayton Eshleman, Alec Finlay, Clive Faust, Lawrence Fixel, Ed Foster, Forrest Gander, Geoffrey Gardner, Dana Gentes, David Giannini, Lyle Glazier, Kirpal Gordon, Sam Green, Jonathan Greene, Donald Hall, Michael Hanish, Marie Harris, Terry Hauptman, Robert Hauptman, Gerald Hausman, Greg Joly, Jane Kenyon, MarthaKing, Basil King, Gary Lawless, James Lowell, Paul Metcalf, Tim McNulty, Gary Metras, Barbara Moraff, John Morrison, Joe Napora, Helen Nearing, Mike O'Connor, John Perlman, Simon Perchik, Robert Peters, Sherry Reniker, Stephen Sandy, Ed Sanders, Steve Sanfield, Andrew Schelling, Harry Smith, Wally Swist, Michael Sykes, Arthur Sze, Janine Pommy Vega, Joe Torra, Anne Waldman, Charter Weeks, Jonathan Williams, James L. Weil, Keith Wilson. Bound wraps with letterpress cover.

:I got an idea and wrote everyone personally above and every one answered. Poets, editors, publishers, printers, film buffs, photographers, musicians, professors, lawyers, troublemakers, close friends.I still want to do an updated edition I've met many new and interesting folks since 1993.

1993. Arnold, Bob, editor. A Longhouse Reader / Spring 1993.

16 pages, 8-1/2 x 11 stapled in one corner. Edited and printed by Bob and Susan Arnold. 200 numbers for the Spring Solstice, 1993. In letterpress decorative envelope with Cid Corman poem on the outside flap. Poets include Alain Bousquet, Cid Corman, Doc Dachtler, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Jonathan Greene, Peter Gurnis, Marie Harris, Gary Hotham, Greg Joly, Paul Kahn, James Koller, John Levy, John Martone, Ken McCullough, Gary Metras, John Perlman, Scott Preston, Edouard Roditi, Janine Pommy Vega, Phyllis Walsh, Scott Watson.

: almost all known poets to earlier Longhouse publications. Scott Watson came from Japan and has since done attractive translations, plus his editing of "Bongos of the Lord". Scott Preston came out of the blue, I like those.Peter Gurnis published his first book from Burning Deck. Paul Kahn manned "Bezoar" and now lives and publishes from Paris.John Martone made contact and it's been on going through many Longhouse publications, never mind his trading treasures from his press at "tel-let". His work since Frank Samperi, and his home garden, are one and the same.

1993. Koller, James. "Grandfather Had Come A Long Way".

Letterpress broadside, limited to 100 signed copies, 5x11 on tan, deckled-edged paper as printed by Greg Joly for Longhouse .

:I read a copy of this poem and could see it first and foremost pinned to a wall, a tree, the back of a door. I asked Greg Joly if he could do us up a letterpress mossy colored wonder.Few ever sold or were asked for. Some days I think about just what the world is missing.

1993. Moraff, Barbara. "Potterwoman Book Two".

Sixteen 8-1/2 x 11 folded sheets. Illustrated with poems in decorative letterpress envelope. 200 numbers printed by Bob and Susan Arnold .

 

:some years earlier Michael Tarachow at Pentagram printed a white cover letterpress wonder titled "Potterwoman". If you could afford it, you own it. It's unforgettable with its red carpet flyleaf pages. Barbara told us there were enough poems for a second book, so we grabbed at it.

1993. Vega, Janine Pommy. "Island of the Sun".

Thirteen 8 1/2 x 11 illustrated folded sheets. 130 numbers printed by Bob and Susan Arnold at Longhouse through the 1992-93 season. In decorative letterpress envelope.

:Janine's prose memory of her time on Lake Titicaca, South America. Read and enter a sphere of its own time.

one of the first prose memoirs by the poet before launching into her book of travels "The Tail of the Serpent" (City Lights).

1993. Vega, Janine Pommy. "Island of the Sun".

Thirteen 8 1/2 x 11 illustrated folded sheets. 130 numbers printed by Bob and Susan Arnold at Longhouse through the 1992-93 season. In decorative letterpress envelope. Signed by the poet on the envelope.

:Janine signs everything for us sitting at one, or the other's, kitchen table.

1994. Arnold, Bob. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Three poems .

:this would be one of 52 booklets I edited into a series, culminating into a boxed edition of all 52 titles from poets around the world. Call it an anthology, or a gathering. More to say when we reach the boxed edition listing.

1994. Arnold, Bob, editor. Longhouse / 1994.

100 copies printed by Bob and Susan Arnold at Longhouse, Vermont. Photocopied. The issue is illustrated sheets of collage and poetry in letterpress envelope. Contributors include David Budbill, Robert Christian, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Robert Hauptman, Duane Locke, Charlie Mehrhoff, Barbara Moraff, Mike O'Connor, Andrew Schelling, Gael Turnbull.

:changing our format once again. We've now moved to smaller card stock, photocopy, folding this many poets onto one sheet double side printed and small enough when received to slip into a shirt pocket. Some of our steady regulars. Plus Charlie Mehrhoff and Andrew Schelling out of Colorado. The fortunes of Gael Turnbull and Scotland. Duane Locke from Florida, Robert Christian and the UK. Bob Hauptman taught library science and has for years attempted to scale the highest US peaks.

1994. Brown, Bill. "Three Poems by Bill Brown".

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. / Three poems.

:now legendary, to some, west coast author lastly based in Bolinas, CA. Brown was closely associated with James Koller and Coyote publications during its early era. His daughter Maggie would marry Koller and begin a second generation Brown family trend to the Coyote name.

1994. Byrd, Bobby. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Three poems.

:Memphis born poet steeped in all varities of that blues black and white city name, and it shows up in the soul of his poems.

1994. Celan, Paul / translated by Cid Corman. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. / Four poems.

:all the translations from this 52 title series were from the hand of Cid Corman. He knew Rene Char and always translated with a personal authority

1994. Corman, Cid. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Three poems.

:Cid would send fresh poems tucked into his letters often by the week. Like a farm stand you felt for the best ears of corn. If I wanted a certain poem or sequence from Cid, it was never a problem.

1994. Deemer, Bill. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Three poems.

:Bill Deemer was another poet I first read through the pages of "Coyote's Journal" and its other publications, or else the small books issued from Christopher's Books. A leonine-looking guy with a smack dab original quirk to many of his mainly short poems. Part Brautigan/part Rimbaud in spirit. For years living in Oregon.

1994. Enslin, Theodore. "A Sonnare".

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet.

: Ted would be happy to send new work whenever I came to call. A musical student when young (not poetry student!) which only strengthened throughout his poetry as he aged in text, application and form. Known for his habitats on Cape Cod and Maine stretching from the 40s to present time. Probably the deepest player in the Cid Corman "Origin" oeuvre, as Longhouse drew its own decades long relationship with the poet.

1994. Green, Samuel. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. / Three poems.

:patient and sturdy poet from Waldron Island of the Pacific Northwest.With his wife Sally, Sam makes letterpress books from "Brooding Heron Press".

1994. Greene, Jonathan. "Timely Question" "After A Hard Winter".

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Two poems.

:another poet from the middle passage of "Origin" who changed his poetry shape and tone the deeper he sank into a Kentucky farm life. A connection to Thomas Merton, Jonathan Williams and Wendell Berry when quite young has been a lasting influence.His own press "Gnomon" shows both a well seated intellectual forte meshed with rural, mystical and invented style folk.This was one of the first booklets in the series.

1994. Gurnis, Peter. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Four poems.

:Peter showed up in the mail with poems. Teaching at the time in northern Vermont. Like some others that come this way by chance, there was an immediate wonder flash to the poems. I wanted them.

1994. Koller, James. "A Dream Starring Bill Brown 1917-1994".

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet.

:Jim sent this poem the year his good friend Bill Brown passed away, and he shuffled me up the Bill Brown poems to do as a companion booklet. You bow to such times.

1994. Martone, John. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Four poems.

:I wouldn't meet John Martone for another decade but that didn't stop us from becoming close friends with many mutual poets from our very little presses, and the sharing of our own books, family news and garden lives. It was essential I meet John and thrive our causes into a weave.

1994. Mehrhoff, Charlie. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series edited by Bob Arnold. Very limited. Small booklet. Three poems.

:Charlie sending me poems was the spurt to start the "Just So Happen" series - they were hot stuff I wanted to share immediately. In moments. Go to press now. If I had a press in the house during this decade it would have been very dangerous. The mimeograph went out with our cabin days in the 70s. We were midway hanging with a few photocopy shops for some years tolerating all our gambits brought in and designs. After some years all the work crews in both photocopy shops saw us coming and literally turned on heel and walked the other way! It was hilarious. The newcomers were shoved into our direction and stared in puzzle-hell to what we were asking of them. Actually it was quite straight forward and logical, and then again it was poetry.We printed Charlie the next day after setting up the format we would stick with throughout: tiny, folded, easy to slip into a pocket. We took this first number with us out west on a long train ride scheduled for the same time. I left one at Death Valley Junction in a phone booth across from Marta Becket's Opera House, and coming back on a long road from nowhere out of Mexico, opened the window and let one blow away. They sailed well.

1994. Monod, Jean / translated by Cid Corman. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. / Two poems.

:Jean Monod had connections with Cid Corman, James Koller and others in touch with me.A startling French mind in poetry & prose, still too little known. Cid did the translation.

1994. Perlman, John. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Three poems.

:John was an old hand with Longhouse going back to our early years. So when I asked for some work, he was on it.A school teacher in New York State when we met and most often spending equal time on hiking trails and outbacks.

1994. Petersen, Will. "Visual Poems".

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Two poems.

:ah, Will Petersen. I believe this was the issue where John Martone and I published, unbeknownst to one another, the same poems from our presses. Probably the same time. Certainly with the same energy. Typically, John was highly apologetic. I waved him on as a comrade! Will was dying, after years of terrific studies in Japan, art, theater, poetry and the greater unknown. Editor and raconteur of the publication "Plucked Chicken". Friend of Gary Snyder and Cid Corman and hundreds more.When I put together my book of Great Americans You Should Have Met, Will's in it.

1994. Petic, Zorika. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Three poems.

:no idea who she is / appeared / I answered with enthusiasm. The name made me think the color of the booklet should be lavender.

1994. Schelling, Andrew. "Out There" for William Everson.

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. One poem.

:Andrew probably appeared after Cid Corman mentioned my name and press. He's a very curious devil, regardless. Has had his hand in a long span of poetry, reaching back to Sanskrit translations (some of his finest work), running awhile with small press editing and publishing, yeoman bookshop work in California, sterling personal essays, and many years staffed at the Naropa Institute with the children of Albion.He's a maker and a doer. Andrew's walked many times into our yard from a long distance off bringing parts of his family with him for a visit..The spiritual father William Everson was but one of his friends.

1994. Walsh, Phyllis. Three Poems.

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Three poems.

:Phyllis has been the quietest editor in America distilling one "Hummingbird" issue after another (by the seasons) for many years now. Her poetry is much the same. Slipped under your door. A real feather in the cap for what has happened in Wisconsin since Lorine Niedecker.

1994. Watson, Scott. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Three poems.

:Scott was another great find in the Cid Corman school of taking in sparklers no one else sees. Poet, teacher, translator of Santoka to knock your socks off.

1994. Weil, James L.. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Three poems.

:Jim had been with me almost from the start. You asked for poems and you received them Jim's way: always a cleanly typed letter on professional stationary, often with a signature in pencil, as he would more than likely sign his books. The poems were quite Corman/Laughlin/Bronkesque and found their own quarter after time.

1994. Young, Karl. "3 Telephones".

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet.

: I mix up in my head Karl Young, Karl Kempton, Karl Gartung, all heavy seekers with good stuff. Karl Young wouldn't be unrecognized after reading his work. No more experimental than living itself. I liked nabbing these few.

1995. Antler. Babyteeth Necklace.

Love Thy Poet 4 series. Postcard, 6 x 4-1/4.

:Antler can be found in the old Wisconsin anthologies just before the change over to a modern era and hipper style. The old Wisconsin of fishing and homestyle. Enter Antler. Allen Ginsberg's pledge first took me to his poetry ("The Factory") and I've seen no reason to stop reading him. This made an ideal postcard considering the title and subject. I want to always imagine PO workers stopping to read it on their delivery path.

1995. Antler. "Proving What?".

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet.

:same as above, now a few more poems and with that delicious anarchy.

1995. Arnold, Bob, ed.. Just So Happens. 1994-1995, An Anthology.

52 separate "booklets" of poets from around the world - ancients to the moderns - including translations. In most cases limited to 50 issued copies of each booklet. In the regular print run, the booklets were given away free until out of print. The editor and publisher have saved into a boxed anthology all 52 issues providing 26 exclusive sets marked A-Z. A complete list of the poets involved: Charlie Mehrhoff; Jonathan Greene; Cid Corman; Will Petersen; Zorika Petic; Bobby Byrd; Andrew Schelling; Scott Watson; Bill Deemer; John Perlman; James L. Weil; John Martone; Theodore Enslin; Phyllis Walsh; Karl Young; Peter Gurnis; Sam Green; Paul Celan translated by Cid Corman; Jean Monod translated by Cid Corman; Bill Brown; James Koller; Bob Arnold; Hosai translated by Cid Corman; Gary Hotham; Barbara Moraff; Doc Dachtler; Steve Sanfield; Alan Lau; John Levy; Alain Malherbe translated by Cid Corman; Gael Turnbull; Robert Creeley; Inge Muller translated by Cid Corman; Craig Czury; Stefan Hyner; Issa translated by Cid Corman; Bob Heman; Ryokan translated by Cid Corman; R. Kimm; Rene Char translated by Cid Corman; Mark Nowak; Laurent Grisel translated by Cid Corman; Antler; David Flynn; Rocco Scotellaro translated by Cid Corman; Franco Beltrametti; Remembering Franco by Cid Corman; Sengai translated by Cid Corman; Ian Hamilton Finlay; Classic Korean Courtesans translated by Cid Corman; and Lorine Niedecker.

:truth be told - I have been writing up these annotations during a week of vigils with memory lane, and all in corresponding order since 1971. I don't want to know what is coming up next in the order so I'm circulating as well with surprise at what's happening next. That was ever the gist for the "Just So Happens" titles and eventual gathering: no plan, seat-of-the-pants confidence that what was coming in - often unsolicited - may work, often did. I have forever been after a poetry without a program or pretense. Life as the poem. People think I may have learned all of this from Cid, but he chased after me when he heard and saw such a mutual mind at play. The poetry as life was learned for me since a kid in the family lumberyards, carpentry crews, paint yourself or box yourself into a corner with few tools and little experience and learn your way out.I loved these little booklets as tools. Presented to give away free, tucked into correspondence, shared with all walks of life, taking the poetry out of the poem and filling it with fresh air. Spring water. I was lucky to have a group of poets that also loved to dance.Only 26 were fully collected into a boxed edition.

1995. Beltrametti, Franco. Pottery, Poetry & Horses.

"100 numbers of a Hot! European Series" in the " 50 numbers that just happen" series. Very limited. Small booklet.

:the Italian/Swiss/part "Japanese" (soul)/part Americana Franco. Important friend with two of my closest friends, Cid Corman and James Koller. It was Jim who brought Franco to our house for a visit, and I still remember the afternoon we all sat in the bedroom and watched Kirk Douglas in "Lonely are the Brave". Like ravens nodding with approval. Franco always had his sketch pads and new art with him, and he gladly showed forth everything - the maestro of performing poetry and art in one breath.He edited one of the tiniest small presses imaginable called "Mini" - one sheet, everything on it, maybe 20 contributors.Astonishing fellow.

1995. Char, Rene / translated by Cid Corman. "Pierre Vertes/Green Stones".

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Two poems.

:Cid knew the Char family - a tremendous advantage for a translator.

1995. Classic Korean Courtesans / translated by Cid Corman. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Three poems.

:both this one and the one above were Cid coming in with what was recently on his plate. Often translating from the French, German, Asian at a clip, with its usual steady reverence.

1995. Corman, Cid. "Outline for a Future Tractatus of Poetry".

Love Thy Poet 3 series. Postcard format.

:the poet's core polemics summed up handily on a postcard. Immeasurable.

1995. Corman, Cid. "Remembering Franco".

"100 numbers that just happen" series. Very limited. Small booklet. Three poems.

:then suddenly, Franco was gone.Far too soon, far too young. Cid just may have written to me a letter that same week, and I asked to extract this part re Franco.I'm pretty sure that's how it worked. Cid knew Franco as a young man visiting with him in Kyoto, and they stayed in close contact for years to come.

1995. Creeley, Robert. "A Feeling".

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet.

:I met Bob Creeley at a Beat poets conference in 1975 around the five-college area of Amherst, UMass etc. It was a great time, all the poets were still in low budget, Creeley hulked around in green Army jacket.One evening, just before a panel discussion on Jack Kerouac, I handed Bob one of the earliest issues of "Longhouse" (then "Our Poets Workshop") and I watched with kid zeal one of my heroes take the whole issue quite seriously and read all of it during the panel talk and take little part in the discussion. Charles Jarvis talked way too much during the panel as I recall.After the event a bunch got together and stood talking. Creeley eyed Susan and me carefully and spoke tenderly about what he had read. He would stay in touch and drop postcard messages from time to time, and when I started to send him the little booklets of this series, he was happy to join along. Mind that behavior and glee O poets of the future.

1995. Czury, Craig. Woodcarved Duck Scrapple.

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. One poem.

:I first saw Craig Czury, homeboy of the Pennsylvania coal hills, in Cid's "Origin" and had to find more. Around the same time he cruised in for a visit, after seeing Lyle Glazier in Bennington - in bermuda shorts, good smile, lots of giddyup and we had a fine outdoor visit.

1995. Dachtler, Doc. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Three poems.

:Doc and I both like the railroad, the Sacramento Kings, are carpenters, and Doc also plays acoustic music I like to listen to on tapes he sends to us. Some part of his family heritage hails from the Dakotas, but he's lived and worked in the Sierra Nevada for as long as I've known him. Once traveling around those parts I rolled down the window and asked a woman in her yard who looked like she just had to know Doc if she knew where he lived.Even with Susan beside me, the woman played dumb. Considering the times, them's good neighbors.

1995. Deemer, Bill. Time To Pen My Memoirs.

Love Thy Poet 1 series. Postcard. 4-1/4 x 5.

:the first postcard we did in a series that stays eternal (up to # 40s now). I asked Bill first. He actually sent a poem to start or even end the series.

1995. Finlay, Ian Hamilton. Some Things.

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Four poems.

:very tough to get poems from Ian, even when he wanted to. His son Eck snuck these over for us.

1995. Flynn, David. "Passer-By".

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet.

:unsolicited, came in one day. We printed them the same day and mailed them to David Flynn. Just so happens.

1995. Grisel, Laurent / translated by Cid Corman. "Corsican Bestiary".

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Four poems.

:Laurent was a friend with Cid and as fully and graceful as he came here, he has disappeared now for years. In 2004 Cid and I were together and talked about Laurent's gifts (poems, travel, sharing, France) but couldn't figure out where he had gone. I believe these poems came to Laurent after some time outdoors during more of his travels.

1995. Grisel, Laurent / translated by Cid Corman. "Memories On The Way".

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet.

:enough to make more. I was happy for it.

1995. Heman, Bob. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Four poems .

:Bob Heman traded lots with me from his "Clown War" perch. I remember both NYC and Amherst, MA. locations. One of my favorite of the modern prose poem stylers, and how he printed and published things was half the delight.

1995. Hosai, Ozaki / translated by Cid Corman. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Five poems.

: Cid just sent it over, and I found it in my mailbox after a hike up river. Imagine how well the poems read walking under the trees back home.

1995. Hotham, Gary. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Four poems.

:Gary Hotham never fails for me. He remains one of the skilled haiku/short poem craftsman of any around the world. Often with an APO mailing address and different locations but I remember the longest being from Maryland.

1995. Hyner, Stefan. Three Poems. Carpenter Poem No. 1, March 9; and Secret Mantra of the Red Partisan Buddha.

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Three poems.

:I met Stefan Hyner through Jim Koller who brought Stefan to our house for a visit. Stefan had a jar of home brew or something in his hand. I was building a house for someone up the road, and being a carpenter, Stefan wanted a look.He returned on his own for other visits. There's a photograph of Stefan holding Carson at age one, both bundled up during a March mudseason day.We'd talk poetry and books and politics for hours, even while playing basketball on my dirt court. He had an eye.

1995. Issa / translated by Cid Corman. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Four poems .

:Issa is always home here, no questions asked.

1995. Kimm, R.. "Giant Plant".

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet.

:Greg Joly published something by R. Kimm that I liked, and one way or another we met up in the mail.Workingman principles to poems that I much appreciated.

1995. Lau, Alan Chong. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Three poems.

:Alan Lau is a great guy who's been married an awful long time to a sweet Kazuko, and I either came to him through John Levy or Cid Corman. I know it was John who introduced me personally to Alan when we railroaded out to Seattle to visit John and got a nest of good poets in the bargain. That was the visit where John, Alan, Andy Echavarria and others were all sitting around like school kids showing off their Cid Corman collection. The gem stone rice paper bounded books in very limited editions. Someone spilled dreadful water onto one of Alan's copies and I can still see all of us registering the little stove in John Levy's apartment to bake the book dry and return our party of wellwishers. Remarkably, twenty years later we RR'd out again to those parts and found Alan and Kazuko in the very same apartment building. In fact, they had taken over John Levy's apartment right across from the city zoo. We walked the neighborhood until an apropriate time to knock on the door (8 o'clock a.m.) calling over all the cats to Carson's enjoyment. At the apartment Kazuko told us Alan was already long gone to Chinatown working at the local grocers.I could see a long stash line of vinyl lps running the floor alongside one wall of the apartment, true singers. We ended up having to surprise Alan down at the grocers, a steady guy with his own privacies but there was no choice! An accomplished artist and poet working amongst bins of vegetables. Hallelujah.

1995. Levy, John. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Three poems.

:who else after Alan Lau, but his old friend John Levy. One of Longhouse's oldest friends, too.

1995. Malherbe, Alain / translated by Cid Corman. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Five poems.

:sharp edged and unsettling poems that Cid picked up somewhere in his mail travels. He knew I'd like them and sent them over at once. A French location.

1995. Moraff, Barbara. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Four poems.

:the series had wandered off from Vermont. I always came back to Barbara Moraff or Lyle Glazier in these times.

1995. Muller, Inge / translated by Cid Corman and Nicolas Linkert. "A Feeling".

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Four poems .

:Nick Linhert was a German poet much in touch with Cid who was feeding Nick the Longhouse ways. These attractive translations were of a poet we all admired.

 

1995. Niedecker, Lorine. Dear Mary Hoard.

"100 numbers that just happen to end a series" in a series. Very limited. small booklet. Three poems.

:Cid Corman was Lorine Niedecker's literary executor, and from time to time unpublished pieces were unearthed from her Wisconsin locale or else hidden treasures were revealed and came to Cid. He would direct some of these to us, or to Jenny Penberthy as we all kept to the love for Lorine. This was a letter from LN who worked for Hoard's "Dairyman" as a proofreader from mid1944-mid1950.

1995. Nowak, Mark. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Three poems.

:at the time Mark was editing a fine publication called "furniture" - working up poetry, music and more.His poetry has since gone strong into labor union struggles and workers rights.The music is in there, too.

1995. Ryokan / translated by Cid Corman. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Three poems .

:Ryokan came, like he should, out of the blue (aerogrammes).

1995. Sanfield, Steve. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Five poems.

:Steve Sanfield was but the second of two poets we went looking for the same day as Doc Dachtler. The PO in his town shook their heads that they didn't know the address we were providing. Right with you, fellas! We toured the backcountry roads and had a beautiful day. At one point we ended up at a dead end with three people visiting on the hood of an old car straight out of Deliverance. Our similar look gave us the rite of passage that said: 'see no evil, do no evil, horseman passby.' . Sanfield's short poem collections are a harvest. His children's books are something else again. I once read to Carson all of Steve's version of "John the Conqueror" while training down through Florida's old haunted byways of disappeared Black townships.

1995. Scotellaro, Rocco / translated by Cid Corman. [untitled].

"100 numbers of a Hot! European Series" in the "that just happen" series. Very limited. Small booklet. Three poems.

: Cid Corman lived as a young man in the district where this poet lived. Italian poor / "Matera", some have termed it. But to Cid the region was 'in the highlands inland between the Ionian Sea and the Adriatic, it is relatively affluent in a world where degradation is the rule.' This was 1956, an American poet gone faraway...while Kerouac was having published "On the Road".

1995. Sengai / translated by Cid Corman. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Four poems.

:arrived like Ryokan, Issa, Basho, Tu Fu always had from Cid - unceremoniously, part of the day, as sunshine.

1995. Turnbull, Gael. [untitled].

"50 numbers that just happen" in a series. Very limited. Small booklet. Five poems.

:a terrific poet, medical man, raised parts in Scotland, Canada, westland America. His "Collected Poems" from Shearsman has finally been issued as that secret swimming-hole. Tied in, naturally enough, with the other poets I knew from Scotland: the Finlays, Thomas A. Clark.

1995. Wilson, Keith. "Whatever We Are".

Love Thy Poet 2 series. 6 x 4-1/4. Postcard poem.

:Keith Wilson is New Mexican through & through. His town of Las Cruces did look like a lit jewelry lace come out of desert blackness one night when we drove from the west onto it after midnight. Something about Keith's upbringing here and later in the Navy made his poetry eye work a careful study.

1996. Arnold, Bob, editor. Scout / Fall 1996.

Folded booklet. Includes the work of Arthur Powers, Theodore Enslin and James Koller.

:Jim Koller, Ted Enslin and I once read up in Maine, their abode to this day. Koller made a whole issue of Coyote's Journal of one of Ted's books "New Sharon's Prospect" and both poets match well in a tiny pocket. Arthur Powers was along for the ride.

1996. Arnold, Bob, editor. Scout / Summer 1996.

Folded booklet. Includes the work of Carson Arnold and Bob Arnold.

:Carson was a ten year old who one day came home with a little school writing exercise that I read and fell over loving for its humor and charm. So, of course, mom & dad published it. As I remember it had to do with the film directors John Ford, Sam Peckinpah and some other critters. We watched thousands of films together when he was a boy.

1996. Arnold, Bob, editor. Scout / Winter 1996.

Folded booklet. Includes the work of two poets :Scarecrow and Cid Corman.

:Scarecrow's got a full name but he was "Scarecrow" then. Abide. Cid always liked his work, so what better motion but to set them together.

1996. Koller, James. "Last Will & Testament".

Love Thy Poet 5 series. Postcard format.

:like only the best folk song. I still read it aloud on street readings and give the postcard away to whomever may cock an ear and send up a smile.

1997. Arnold, Bob. Hooky.

Folded booklet of six poems.

:you're supposed to be cutting classes.

1997. Arnold, Bob. Is It.

One poem, decorative bookmark.

:a poem that Ted Enslin said to me he would have been proud to have written. Jonathan Greene included it when he published my book of poems "Once In Vermont" from his Gnomon Press.

1997. Arnold, Bob. "Lesson".

Love Thy Poet 6 series. Postcard. 4-1/4 x 5.

:a poem about a weasel and a hawk. There's a moral.

1997. Arnold, Bob, editor. Scout / Spring 1996.

100 numbers. Folded booklet. Includes the work of Greg Joly, Jonathan Greene, Phyllis Walsh, Alan Chong Lau, Sean Brendon-Brown, Gary Hotham, Alan Catlin.

:all sturdy standbys I've published before, except Sean Brendon-Brown who was slipped in as a welcoming stranger.

1997. Arnold, Bob, editor. Scout / Summer 1997.

100 numbers. Folded booklet. Includes the work of Arthur Powers, John Perlman, James L. Weil, David Gross, Emma Rose Short-Lee, Gary Hotham, Doc Dachtler, Peter Dent.

:David Gross often sent midwest rural wisdom that I liked to snap up. Emma Rose Short-Lee was a startling fine young poet I met one day, fast, in a sophomore English class I was teaching as a visiting poet.We would work together for three years and she even brought her parents to our home for a visit. Peter Dent sent brief settling poems from the UK.

1997. Corman, Cid. "We Are Offspring Of".

One poem, decorative bookmark.

:often the bookmarks told the tale. Slipped into book orders we shipped out of our bookshop, regular correspndence, and even into students poems I read and folded a bookmark in as a gift.

1997. Deemer, Bill. Japanese & Other Poems.

Folded booklet. Others try--but Bill Deemer is our Han Shan.

: the above says it all

1997. Enslin, Theodore. "Bystander".

Bookmark.

: one of Ted's posts to lean on.

1997. Greene, Jonathan. "for W. B.".

Bookmark.

:one of Jonathan's as elegant homage.

1997. Harris, Marie. "Elegy for Adelaide".

Bookmark.

:Marie, I believe, raised terriers once upon a time. Her loss was ours.

1997. Harris, Marie. Ground Zero.

125 numbers. Folded booklet of poems.

: rousing New Hampshire poet in her apetite for working with poets of all ages, rural life, and due a few years after this to be assigned a position as the state's Poet Laureate. She's surrounded by a life time of family companions as poets, photographer and musicians.

1997. Hyner, Stefan. "Two Poems".

Two poems. One of which is titled "Big Question/Easy Answer". Upright folded booklet.

:Stefan in with enough poems to make a tiny slip of a thing. Bright gold. Mandatory.

1997. Koller, James. Travaux de Voire (Road Work).

Folded booklet of poems.

:someone recently said to me, "When Jim Koller writes he sounds like he's in Wyoming." He lives in Maine. I answered, "That's because he is." This is an extract from a much longer work that was composed when the poet was on the road, notebook closeby, scribbling a way at what was before him. In French title because he's been getting acquainted for the past two decades with his old Euopean ancestry (eastern European mainly) and friends.

1997. Martone, John. "Perfect/Windy...".

Bookmark.

:John is best moving with the motion, right into stillness. This is one.

1997. Martone, John. "wildflower book".

125 numbers. Small folded booklet. Thirteen poems.

:I wanted to give this book away to all the world. Capsulized treat with poems to match.

1997. McNulty, Tim. "Short Songs for the Spring Peepers".

100 numbers. Small folded booklet. . Twelve poems.

:I'm tempted to reprint this one. Tim McNulty lives with his family on the Olympic Peninsula. Some years ago we took a ferry over and decided we might find a few of our peninsula friends, never met, and we still haven't.One would think we could have just used a phone but that would have taken the fun out of it. We found something like Tim's address but instead there was a large RV in the dooryard and that didn't look right. The RV owner provided some more clues. Onward. And then we came to the clearing with the fine homestead built onto it, the woodshed almost full, varnished floors and very good books on the shelves in one window we peeked into. No one home. It was almost enough to meet just the house at first and the McNulty location.We'll be back.

 

1997. Miller, David. "Suite".

100 numbers. Small folded booklet. A sequence of poems.

:endless writing dimensions from this UK poet we published much earlier and now and then we get the opportunity to do a comeback.

1997. Mills, Billy. "Unfinished Alba".

100 numbers. Small folded booklet. . Seven poems.

:from Ireland, always graceful Billy Mills. About ten years later we would do another booklet, and as an old man I'll look for another one. This is just the kind of poetry one sets down for the uninitiated to enjoy.

1997. Niedecker, Lorine. "Bookmarks".

A bookmark of three poems.

:LN made poetry for a bookmark. In her "Collected Poems" you have the opportunity to read and never wear the poems down, they just polish up.

1997. O'Connor, Mike. Only A Friend Can Know. Six Chinese Poems on the Theme of Chih-Yin.

Translations. Folded booklet.

:Mike O'Connor homesteaded awhile on the rainshadow rural side of the Olympic Peninsula. He gathered a great book of poems out of the experience. Later years had him working in Taiwan and writing and translating before returning to the Pacific Northwest steady with his work. Like wayfayers, I hear from Mike when I do.

1997. Scarecrow. "Not For The Unenlightened".

Bookmark.

:the title lines it up.

1997. Schelling, Andrew. "12th August Lost Poems". "from the "Road to Ocosingo" A Mexico Journal 1995".

100 numbers. Small folded booklet. One long poem

:extracted from a small press book I much enjoyed and wanted to spread a part of it further around to new readers.

1997. Scully, Maurice. "From Zulu Dynamite".

100 numbers. Folded small booklet.

:love the title! Another of the Irish connection via Billy Mills & Catherine Walsh.

1997. [Sengai] [Corman, Cid, translator]. Singing Along with Sengai.

Folded card of six poems.

:this one is such a wholesome net that I printed up extra and gave it away to 75 students in one day. Even the jocks said "thanks".

1997. Strusinski, Evan. "Untitled".

One poem. Folded booklet of poems.

:Evan was a young poet cottoned to Cid Corman and Lyle Glazier, and then he got to me. He sent a bunch of poems once in a letter, I plucked one out.

1997. Vega, Janine Pommy. Janine Pommy Vega's Book.

One of 125 copies. Folded booklet. Signed by the poet .

:Janine could be published every month by us if we had our druthers. Life is bigger than that! So when she sends us a new poem she's finished, as she has since 1974, sometimes we go places with it. This one semed very right with a pair of long poems and I just titled it what it deserved to be called and sent it back to her as a gift. In its rose color wrap.

1997. Walsh, Catherine. from "City West..".

100 numbers. Small folded booklet. Double-issue booklet from this poet's work of five poems.

:Catherine Walsh is married to Billy Mills, and we had a steady correspondence for awhile, mined with sharing poems. This one rolled in one day from a longer work, tricky to fit into our format, but we managed it.It's one we're keeping in print.

1997. Walsh, Phyllis. "Hollow Maple".

One poem tiny folded booklet series.

:very tiny, almost meant to slip between the cracks, and look at the title!

1997. Wilson, Keith. from "Life Drawings".

100 numbers. Small folded booklet. Ten poems.

: a further selection from Keith that I edited from many good pages. A step into it and your head's in the southwest.

1998. Arnold, Bob. Beautiful Swimmers. A tale..

Card stock stiff wraps. Further travels with the author and his family teaching a young son how to swim (and other things), motel pool to motel pool , with the assistance of one Burt Lancaster from the film "The Swimmer". The young boy and actor getting along well. 150 numbers.

:Cid Corman had next to no access to printing & publishing at this time but plenty of ideas what he wanted to see in print. My new book of family travel around the USA endeared him to ask to see it published as the first imprint of "Longhouse-Origin". Cid sent funding, and we did the legwork. Susan beared down into her then fledging knowledge of desktop publishing and took it over the top.

 

1998. Arnold, Bob. Engine Trouble. (Woven). Wraps. 1/300

:it states 300 printed (covers are ready) but no more than 150 were done. Published under the imprint of Susan's own "Woven", hand bound. The book title, of course, taken from a line in Woody Guthrie's song "Talking Dust Blues".

1998. Arnold, Carson. "Thoreau, Now Me".

Folded booklet by our youngest published writer.

: we went over as a family one late autumn day and climbed Mount Monadnock together, Dublin Trail. Windy as all get-out that day on the summit. We thought we were alone up there until I almost stepped onto a couple buried inside a rocky alcove huddled with a cellphone. Say what? Carson returned home and wrote this piece knowing a little something during our drive about Henry David Thoreau and his 18th c. New Hampshire sojourns.

1998. Corman, Cid. "God or Buddha...".

Foldout poem.

: one of my favorite in-stone pieces by Cid. So we printed it onto a granite colored paper stock.

1998. Corman, Cid. The Practice of Poetry. Reconsiderations of Louis Zukofsky's A Test of Poetry.

Stiff wraps with crisp text throughout.

:by now Cid has already completed his extensive book on the poetry of Louis Zukofsky. It may be buried with his papers in the ingenious catacombs of The Lilly Library in Indiana. This was the second full volume in the "Longhouse-Origin" library and it was particular to Zukofsky by traveling through the works of many other poets first. The sure-footed terrain of Cid's.

1998. [Dhompa] Wangmo, Tsering. "Between Clouds".

100 numbers. Small folded booklet. Unsigned.

:maybe Tsering's first 'book', tiny as it was, she expands in one poem what many poets need a full book to do. There are three poems here. Printed before Tsering added on "Dhompa" to her name. A glorious poet wide with interior and exterior darkness and brilliantly lit celebration.Like watching clouds shadow and then sun fill a mountainside. Her heart for years has been with family blood in Tibet and a home in San Francisco.

1998. Enslin, Theodore. Skeins.

Wraps with extended flaps; limited edition. 250 numbers, maybe. Forty years ago Origin Press released Theodore Enslin's first book of poems. In the spirit, Longhouse and Origin join hands and pay tribute to this poet once again with this new collection.

:the third book in the series from "Longhouse-Origin" and it would hail a forty year relationship between Cid Corman and Ted Enslin. A remarkable legacy that legend has it first started in Gordon Carnie's The Grolier Bookshop of Cambridge, MA. Whether Ted met Cid there, or found some of his poetry there, both were certainly living in Massachusetts at the time. "Skeins" would be republished into Ted's "Then, and Now: Selected Poems" by the National Poetry Foundation

1998. Hauptman, Terry. Three Poems.

In the series of "50 Numbers That Just Happen". Folded booklet.

:Terry Hauptman was one of the first poets I ever met at age 20 and Terry a little older. Very thin, speaking in a whisper, a face hidden in a halo of raven hair. Her husband Bob picked me up hitchhiking and announced he had read more books than anyone. "And then I met you!" is how Bob remembers it today.Terry's art work and poetry have been exhibited for years. The whisper remains, but she has learned how to growl when she has to. In a few days we will read together on the street, again, for the drowned city of New Orleans.

1998. Hettich, Michael. "Song".

Love Thy Poet 10 series. Postcard.

:I met Michael Hettich and his wife Colleen in a bookstore in Brattleboro when they were hawking books from their then Moonsquilt Press. A very handsome couple.I was just an innocent bystander listening in, but soon they would become close friends with Susan and me. At the time they were running an art gallery with a boat load of heart in a town that hadn't quite moved yet into its glorified art settings. After some time and scratching by they moved to Florida, ever busy with teaching, poetry and an art scene. I'm not sure why we've done so little of Michael's work. There's time ahead.

1998. Hotham, Gary. Bare Feet.

Limited sewn edition in wraps. 100 numbers issued.

: a pleasure to pick poems for Gary's book, and all riding its short poem edge. Under an ancient Japanese name he might be famous.

1998. King, Martha. "Conversation - The Pairing".

Love Thy Poet 7 series. Postcard. 4-1/4 x 5.

: Martha & Basil King are hallmarks of the bohemian couple. I always thrived in a reading of Martha's quixotic small press and whenever I saw her own poems it reminded me to ask her for one or two or three to choose from. One day we matched up and one was chosen.

1998. Martone, John. No Roof.

Limited sewn edition, 100 numbers issued.

: this was a kissin' cousin model as Gary Hotham's "Bare Feet". We published them side by side, same paper and a shade different cover stock. The two poets would make ideal public reading mates.

1998. Mehrhoff, Charlie. (untitled poem).

Love Thy Poet 9 series. Postcard size, tan color. Signed by the poet.

:for awhile there, Charlie was on a roll - he would send poems and often I would find one that I couldn't let go. Like this one.

1998. Money, Peter. When Joe Spence Put Down His Guitar.

Love Thy Poet 8 series. Cardstock Postcard. One poem. 4-1/4 x 6.

 

: Peter Money used to write me great letters from "Martin Luther King Boulevard" out in Berkeley where he lived. He was a New England boy and we enjoyed one another's company through correspondence...as he moved his young family back east and set up home in central Vermont.Joseph Spence was a wunderkind bluesman from the Bahamas, also a stonemason.Everything about this poem was dead right, starting with the title and how Peter carried it through.

1998. Niedecker, Lorine. Dear Charles Reznikoff....

Folded booklet of something scarce.

:another from Cid's hand to ours, and an actual letter from LN to the Objectivist poet / historian. An amazing twining of poetry minds if those two could have ever met and read together - their "added kindness".

1998. Phillips, John. "Life Is What".

Love Thy Poet 12 series. Poem card.

:the first entry from Longhouse for this Cornwall, UK native. He sent his very first homemade publications to Cid Corman and me, and Cid and I were buzzing a bit back & forth about it all. I immediately asked for more. John and his Slovene wife Jasna scuddling between UK and Slovenia for a livlihood and it would be only a matter of time we would publish more.

1998. Phillips, John. "Plenty".

100 numbers. Small folded booklet. Four poems by this poet living with his family in Slovenia.

:back to back hits, loving the energy of it.

1998. Scheffel, Bill. "Family".

Love Thy Poet 11 series. Postcard.

:the next three were a follow-up from Boulder, Colorado: Bill Scheffel having studied with Andrew Schelling and Andrew then a companion with Anne Waldman...it was a string of hits.

1998. Schelling, Andrew. "Sanskrit Now...".

100 numbers. Small folded booklet.

:some more of Andrew's gorgeous translations. He was never hesitant at sharing powerfully into the smallest press and spreading the good word of mouth.

1998. Waldman, Anne. “Sacra Conversatione”.

Folded booklet. of poems.

:Anne said to me, "I always loved those little books you do. I'd love to have one." So would we.

1999. Baker, Ed. "Far Beyond".

One poem tiny folded booklet series. .

:this was the rascal I wouldn't meet until 2004 at the Lorine Niedecker Centenary in Milwaukee. Cid made sure we were there as all the Arnold family, and he did the same for John and Jasna Phillips. Nancy Rafal and Michael Farmer were the guardian angels on that one. Ed had known Cid for years but had never met; he arrived in Milwaukee after a stroke holding a cane. Without the stroke he may have burned the city down.One of his first orders of business was to pass himself off as "Bob Arnold" to all the organizers of the event and that held until almost the last day. There's something maniacal and fantastic about a personality like that.He'd be too easy to hate, so I like him, at times embrace him. This was a little booklet from the artist and poet who should be far better known.

1999. Caldiero, Alex. "You Would Never Know By The Looks".

Love Thy Poet 15 series. Postcard. 4-1/4 x 5.

:Alex is old breed action artist, poet, and high plains western desert rat. Reminds me just a little bit of what Larry Goodell used to send to me in the early 70s. Lots of verve and nerve. I still crack into a wisdom laugh when I read this poem.

1999. Corman, Cid. Together.

Limited edition sewn wraps,. One of only 100 copies issued.

:a lovely handmade book we wanted to make for Cid, all sewn and probably less have been stitched up than indicated.We printed plenty of covers so the potential is there for a higher print run. It's Cid coming into the cove of our family intimacy.

1999. Deemer, Bill. Variations.

Only 200 sewn copies issued in sewn stiff decorative wraps.

:a grand book we all loved to do, including Bill, and then everything went wrong.But the book was published and looks fit as a fiddle. Guessing that at best 200 were made. Again, plenty of covers are on hand... it's just the money flow, demand and storage, but we won't ever let it go out of print. The poet's work means too much to us.

1999. Greene, Jonathan. "The Full Moon".

Love Thy Poet 14 series. Poem card.

:Jonathan Greene probably slipped this one into a letter with an expertise knowing what would work for me. He hasn't been wrong yet.

1999. Massey, Joseph. "Branches-Hours After".

One poem tiny folded booklet