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This broadside titled Use, is designed and printed by Joseph Green of Peasandcues Press in Longview, Washington. Poem by Oregon Poet Laureate Paulann Petersen. Hand-set metal type (Goudy Italian Old Style text, Quill Script title) on burlap texture background with solarplate illustrations.
Use
A bird's beak. Recurved,
decurved, serrate, hooked.
Each to its purpose.
Dark, pale, honeyed, dun,
of use. Stabbing, probing, it keeps
its size, its shape, by balancing
constant growth and constant use.
A small and honed proof.
Onward it grows, fed by a heart's
swift little engine that's fed by
what the beak can dislodge.
Outward—against grit or bark—
it wears away as much of itself
as it adds. The use of use: to keep
a beak as beak, exactly.
Worn to perfection.
—Paulann Petersen
The Bellingham Review, Spring 2010
The Voluptuary, Lost Horse Press, 2010
Use by Paulann Petersen and Joseph Green
$17.75
Sale price
$17.75
Regular price
$25.00