The View

The View

First, there was The Box, then came The View. The interesting thing about a view is it belongs to the beholder. There is no arguing with your point of view—it is yours alone, although we might share that view. When you ask a poet for his or her view, don’t expect a straight answer. Here are four views, illustrated, folded and boxed with a window.

First View
Back on the Farm by Tree Bernstein

An excerpt—
Thirty-seven years ago I lived on this farm.
The house my father built is still here, but the elms are gone.
Seven miles from town
up the pock-marked road doesn’t seem so
far now.

grey gravel path, dust brown rye, oxblood barn
lime green grass edges the sky

Third View
Things I believe in by Laura Wright

I believe in proclamation and in whispers
in chaos and our frantic need
to be contained
in leaves and puddles, reason and tangibility
the grace of your touch
your disappointment
which is not the same as mine
I believe
in necessary means but I do not believe in whatever

Fourth View
Returning Home for a Brief Visit, November 2001
by Randy Roark

Musique D'ameublement (for Erik Satie)

the ideal
is no better than what already is,
because we are nourished from above
mostly by the sun

Horenswurdigkeiten-things worth hearing

nothing is better than to listen to the sea
for the way it comes into being in the moment
it ceases to exist-like listening to and looking at the sea.

Second View
Cloudless Sky by Darrin Daniel

writing is like taking a stab at totality,
the story never ends—
the view almost always obscured.

i. towers two
our wars
even our deaths
a municipality
chronicled
through numbers,
indexed to prove
our passion for
suffering is truly a unique
and civilized event.
wearing these wounds
as if honor had been won
with another bomb
surgically finding its destiny.
darkness spread
so evenly and swiftly
across the face of peace

Ordering information:
The View
Four broadsides with color image on one side, poem on the other in hand-printed slipcase. Limited edition of 100.

Back on the Farm – Tree Bernstein
Cloudless Sky – Darrin Daniel
Things I Believe in – Laura Wright
Returning Home for a Brief Visit – Randy Roark

$30 + $5 postage and packaging

Send cheque or money order to:
TreeHouse Press
PO Box 1144
Ojai, CA 93024

A view of the poem side