die Hefte

This summer, while Lily was grinding away here in Kassel, I was packing up the ranch in Brooklyn. In the process, I came across a bunch of surplus paper from past issues of Swerve. I knew with the move, I would be heading into a kind of sabbatical period, a window where I could really sink into a writing project. The materials at hand told me what to make:


31 books


7"x 7"


24 pages

I built them at the kitchen table the first week of June.

The same week, I was walking by Cooper Union after work and I ran into my friend John E.

We decided to dip into a little basement bar around the corner for a pint of Guinness. I told him about the books, and that I wanted to do something with them to get away from just sequentially filling up notebooks, journaling. He suggested that I assign each book a theme or focus. Then I could pull out a book at any time and write on topic, or add new work when my day gave me something that fit. GREAT IDEA.


We broke it up and I walked over to the F Train at 2nd Ave. While I waited for the train, the delightful Todd C. walked down the steps.

I told him about the books, and our conversation continued on the train back into Brooklyn. He suggested that I send the books out to different people and have them fill in the books and send them back to me. GREAT IDEA, but problematic, because then I wouldn't have anything to write in, as the books would be finished.

BUT, the kernel of his idea was perfect. I sent 31 spare cover sheets (18 3/4"x 7 1/8" - these were the slightly-too-small scrap ends of the last Swerve cover's full sheets) to 31 people, each with a topic, an overseas return envelope addressed to me in Germany, and no further instructions other than to do something with the paper and send it to me.



And the letters have been trickling back to me... Thirteen so far. Others promised and sworn to be in process. The range of responses has been amazing and inspiring:

from poems:




to paintings and drawings:




to letters:



to collage:




to a page of stuttering:



to a folded-paper cutout:



to typewriter art:







With the help of these words and images, I've started about 20 of the books, and finished one so far (Heft #25 "Reunification" for those following along at home). More on these books as the poems make their way out of them.


So thanks everyone who sent their words and images and thoughts. The rest of you are on notice!


* das Heft = notebook (plural: die Hefte)