‘I rose from marsh mud…’ (Lorine Niedecker, 1903–1970)

by wiggs66

Have been thinking about the tactile virtues of the handmade. In particular the booklets and other handwritten ephemera the poet Lorine Niedecker made of her own work. I’ve been carrying my own small and scrappily constructed copy of her ‘Paean to Place’ around with me for weeks, with each stanza on its own page as Niedecker intended it, “in a little book all by itself”. Mine is a poor substitute though for the beautiful autograph book she transcribed it into for a friend – http://www.thing.net/~grist/ld/ln/ln-01.htm – each stanza floating like leaves below the surface of a pond.

‘I grew in green / slide and slant / of shore and shade / Child-time–wade / thru weeds //

Maples to swing from / Pewee-glissando / sublime / slime- / song’

Gorgeous.