Rodefer Pictures

How better decorate your hot Brooklyn pad than with the badassery of one of the best poets of like 3 or 4 generations? My first Rodefer book was his entry in the Tuumba series--#36 Plane Debris. That title was also one of the first I acquired in my quest to complete the entire Tuumba publications. The format of the series changed to the classic style at issue 12; it historically hit its stride with editor Lyn Hejinian's second entry, Gesualdo, which was issue 15. The only other formal anomaly is Rodefer's entry, featuring delightfully oversized wraps, more than 2 inches wider than the other pamphlets, as if it's protruding place on the bookshelf constantly reminds you how extravagant & great the contents are.

About a year ago I bought some of Rodefer's "language pictures" from Greg Fuchs, a fact I've previously documented here. Never, though, have I provided photos of the framed jobs hanging on my walls.



These two flank the fireplace in my living room. The quote from the item above, which I call to myself "23," is reprinted as an epigraph to the poem "Brief to Butterick," found both in the pamphlet Leaving & the larger collection Left Under A Cloud. It reads,

Yes, the tooth of time is black to the root
I have done all I could do
To appear mirthful

This second piece, which I call to myself "The Order," is a most pleasant collage of artist Mathew Barney over one of those September 11th remembrance name-lists. The item was created on December 20th in the year of its happening. It is most interesting in the context of the other, linguisto-minimalist pieces, & is striking as a somewhat more conceptual texture than any of the other items.

The final picture, which I call to myself "Fuck Death," follows below. It is a variation on one of the items Rodefer displayed at the Bowery Poetry Club in February of 2007. It hangs above the fireplace in my bedroom. This one isn't on paper, but rather a rollable burlap sack, with a painted sheet of paper towel between the two words.