A TOILET BROKE SO WE *MUTATED THE SIGNATURE*

I've done a number of collaborations with Nick Carbo in the past. In 2005, we began one where our process involved sending each other a poetry-sculpture -- a sculpture with an accompanying poem -- by snailmail and the other responding to such with another poetry-sculpture and poem. It was a good way to get rid of some old bras, let me tell you -- said brassieres then lending themselves to the line of uniting the convex with the concave (grin).

The series began with Nick finding a broken-down toilet regulator and spray painting it with the text of a poem it inspired. My response-poem addressed how to regulate desire (or not).

Well, 'twas good fun and we never really know what would happen to collaborations. With this one, Nick and I had some vague hope that the series would end up in a gallery. But, candidly, while we have retained the texts of the generated poems, some of the poetry-sculptures may no longer exist -- the vicissitudes of life, if you will. So I was delighted to be solicited for a collaboration by Quarrtsiluni, an online literary/artistic magazine which takes its name from an Iñupiaq word that means "sitting together in the darkness, waiting for something to burst."

Nice title. Specifically, I was solicited by Dana Guthrie and Nathan Moore who are guest-editing an issue focused on collaborations entitled Mutating The Signature. Yay-dom to the news that they took the first four poems from Nick and my poetry-sculpture series.

All this because a toilet stopped regulating itself...! Poetry: it's all around you--you just gotta be sufficiently tipsy to see ...