Olympia

So much gratitude to Beth Reynolds for this Olympia typewriter (and thank you also for the oatmeal chocolate cookies!). What a stunning gift. I’ve been wanting a typewriter for a while—when I was younger, my family had one that I loved using, and then at some point, years ago, we just moved on entirely to computers. I’ve been missing the sound of typewriters. The keys and little hammers, the bell. The unabashed clack, this bold machinery.

The second image here is my second attempt at typing something on the Olympia. First attempt had many more mistakes, haha. On this page are all my collections—chapbook and full-length, published and forthcoming and still in the works. Thanks to Jeff for looking up how to type the number 1 (not with an uppercase “I” but with a lowercase “L”), how to make an exclamation point (a three-step process), and how to backspace (just a key I keep forgetting is the key). Learning and learning. From the fumbling and the slow attending, trying again. Also excited to use some whiteout!

Next—will (must) type up poems/poem excerpts I love. Maybe something by Brigit Pegeen Kelly, whose book Song I just taught in my poetry workshop at Brandeis. And then maybe something by Nikky Finney, whose book Head Off & Split I am about to teach. These will likely be excerpts, as they both tend (gorgeously) toward the long poem. But then, I anticipate, I know that there will also be delight as well as instruction in spending that time—taking that care to type up and out a long unfolding.