A LIST, A LOVE LETTER, A POSTCARD TO MYSELF — SEPTEMBER 2012
The poetry section at Powell's Books is more expansive than the 811 aisle of many a library. Upon landing at PDX, I hopped on the MAX and proceeded directly to W. Burnside & 10th — my #1 destination whenever in Portland, OR. That first afternoon, I made it from A through F. Two days later, I made it through to Z. Just in the poetry section.
If I had a million dollars and any empty shelf room, I'd've given some of these beautiful creatures a loving home... Alas I didn't even have the nerve to take photos in the aisles, but what I do have is this list.
DROOL-WORTHY / IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND / NEVER SEEN BEFORE:
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#1 Hymn to the Gentle Sun by Sister Mary Norbert Korte (1967 1st edition of the poet's first book, published in Berkeley CA, good condition... you'd probably have to track down the "Redwood Mama Activist" herself to find another copy like this one)
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#2 Dorothy Q Together With a Ballad of the Boston Tea Party & Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill Battle by Oliver Wendell Holmes (late 1800s, 1st edition, identified by pg. 50 'flashed' instead of 'clashed')
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#3 Slick But Not Streamlined by John Betjeman with an introduction by W.H. Auden (1947, gorgeous 1st edition with dust jacket)
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#4 Come In by Robert Frost (1943, 1st edition with dust jacket, full of illustrations, gorgeous)
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#5 Tabret & Harp by Marion Armstrong (1967 — I think 1st & only edition) ...you can find other Marion Armstrong, but not this one. Page 11 particularly caught my ear:
Brightly, oddly,
Greedy as a shark,
The teeth of the ungodly
Glitter in the dark.
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#6 Richard Aldridge, Fantasy Poets series pamphlet (opens four ways), marked for one shilling — (1956, published in Britain — Aldridge was a Fulbright scholar studying at Worcester College, Oxford, at the time this was printed. This is so rare I'd wonder if Aldridge himself might not have a copy and want this one.)
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#7 Rootabaga Pigeons by Carl Sandburg (kids' book by the poet, lovely gilded hardback edition, good shape)
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#8 History of Prostitution by William W. Sanger, Eugenics Publishing Co. (worn but not bad for mid-1800s printing) I want this partly for fascination/curiosity's sake, and partly because I don't want anyone else to have it who might try to falsely associate it with Margaret Sanger
... AND THAT'S MOSTLY JUST IN THE POETRY SECTION. I DIDN'T EVEN MAKE IT INTO THE RARE BOOK ROOM.
OTHER TEMPTATIONS LEFT BEHIND:
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Shelf Life, the Powell's documentary DVD
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To Herland & Beyond by Ann J. Lane (I have a Herland obsession — 1912 Charlotte Perkins Gilman all-female dis/utopia novella)
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Word on the Street by Richard Nagler (2010, photos of a single word in urban scenes, as graffiti, sign, etc.)
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Going Postal by Martha Cooper (2009, photos of mailing label street art)
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Destroy This Memory by Richard Misrach (2010, photos of graffiti messages on post-Katrina abandoned buildings)
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How To Avoid Huge Ships and Other Implausibly Titled Books (2008 — what can I say? I am that sucker who is attracted to books comprised mainly of photos of the covers of other books)
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Complete Nonsense by Edward Lear (1996 reprinting in a hand-colored edition I'd never seen before)
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Field Work by Seamus Heaney (1979, 1st edition — not rare, but still a really nice copy)
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Instructions to the Double by Tess Gallagher (1994, known poet and known press, so you'd think it wouldn't be that hard to find, but it is)
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Pursuit by Erica Funkhouser (2002, Houghton Mifflin imprint, so not hard to find)
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John Kinsella — someone gave Powell's a copy of almost every book this Australian nature poet has ever written
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The Important Thing by Margaret Wise Brown (Goodnight Moon author, this title recently reintroduced into circulation)
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Here by Wislawa Szymborska (you know, that Polish poet who won the Nobel Prize who's not Czeslaw Milosz)
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All of Us by Raymond Carver
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Tongue and Thunder by David Cloutier (1980, Copper Beach — not Canyon — Press)
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A Moon Over Wings by Tom Aslin (2008, Clark City Press)
Did I mention I love Powell's? Go buy some books — you know you love them.
http://www.powells.com