In 1985 and 1986, I started working at Crowley's Department Store in the New Center area of Detroit. I was painting a lot. This first Volume went for nearly two years instead of the usual one year. Only the "scratchboard" piece in Number 21 is on thicker stock. The rest of the masters are all just on thin paper, with some "glue-ons" added.
Numbers 3 to 6 feature black and white photos which I shot in New York City. In Number 5, there's a self portrait with a still of actor Gaston Modot in the background from the 1930 Luis Bunuel film L'Age D'or. I punned the poem Large Door from this.
In Number 6 is my first published poem, newspaper headline poem-collage. The photo is of a painting I found on a New York sidewalk. The small face in Number 7 is my own face at age ten or so. The photo on the right shows me with my first book.
Numbers 8 and 17 contain pre-SURREAL THEATRE comic strips. In Number 9, there's a tiny collage poem and stuff pulled from my hardcover notebooks. Number 10, is in memory of Bob Kaufman who's one of my all-time favorite poets. I really like the totem pole drawing in Number 12, the Beat Expressions Issue. Number 16 is the first real New York City Issue.
Number 18 has one of my favorite experiments: New York photo booth photos, shrunken down, then copied until my face deteriorated and looked like a mask. I wrote a special prose poem to go with the images.
Dedications for this volume include poems for French poet Arthur Rimbaud, and comedian Buster Keaton.
Personal Favorites: in Number 4 the poem your clock makes me sick ... (a real Luddite fantasia), in Number 13 the poem about trees turned into men, in Number 14 the Inventory poem, and in Number 16 the poem the empty gift.