Tag Archives: Letters

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Journaling Idea #16: Make it Molecular

Photo by Erin Stone

You could choose to write about molecules, but that’s not what I’m suggesting here. I’m recommending you write in very small particles. Try writing an atom poem. I learned of this short form variation of a haiku from a post on Ben Alexander’s “The Skeptic’s Kaddish,” a blog I enjoy following. Alexander cites the Poets Collective website for the source of the instructions for the form:

  • Provide a title.
  • Write in a series of three-line stanzas.
  • Use five letters in the first line of each stanza
  • Use seven letters in the second line of each stanza.
  • Use five letters in the third line of each stanza.
  • Do NOT capitalize any letters.
  • Do NOT use punctuation.
  • Use as many stanzas as needed.

Below is my first attempt at an atom poem:

Photo by Erin Stone

When it Snows in San Bernardino

frond

brushes

frond

on top

slender

palms

below

peaks of

white

You can create a whole journal devoted to atomic poems, or make a journal devoted to short form poetry where you try out a different form each day, week, or month. You could create an eclectic journal where you respond to different prompts/ideas on each page. You’re in charge of your writing. Your journal is yours.

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Snail Mail from an Inland Valley Daily Bulletin Reader

What a wonderful surprise to find this delightful card in my mailbox! She wrote in response to my December 12, 2021 column titled “Writing Someone a Letter Would Be the Gift of a Lifetime.”

The writer shared her lifelong enjoyment of corresponding with “Pen Friends.” She remarkably maintains correspondence with twenty people around the world.

She spends an hour-and-a-half to two hours writing each letter with a BIC pen, whose six-sided barrel she praises for its non-slip grip. Her immaculate penmanship supports her claim.

What a pleasure to connect with someone who enjoys my love for correspondence! I hope she will let me join her global group of Pen Friends.

I will definitely treasure her letter to me as a gift!

Note: Her stationary is designed by Yoshiko Yamamoto and printed by the Arts & Crafts Press.

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Drop Box Satisfaction

I feel a certain pleasure in letting

go of a letter after it has teetered

on the edge of the drop box’s slot

after I’ve nudged it with a flick of my fingers.

I listen for the landing. Is it

a resounding from the bottom of an empty

box? Or the soft shuffle of envelope

sliding on to a haphazard stack of other

sealed envelopes? Either way, my letter

is on its way. My words are written.

I am content to wait for the possibility

of a reply.

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Book Letters

I wanted to create something special for my friend Victoria Waddle’s birthday. I imagined her initials made out of open books.

I started playing with a physical copy of Robinson Crusoe to determine the general shapes and the component parts of the end view of an open book.
I cut a piece of paper the size of my linoleum block and sketched out my design. I then taped the design to a block and went over the lines pressing firmly. Since her initials are V and W, I didn’t have to worry about flipping them so they would turn out facing the correct direction when printed. If her initials included letters like D, B, or E, I would have had to invert the image on the block so the letters would print facing the correct direction.
My retracing of the drawing left a faint in impression on the block.
After I removed the paper, I penciled over the impressions to make the design more visible.
I began outline the design with a small V-gouge.
The areas of the block that are uncut become the areas that print. You carve out the negative spaces of the design. In this photo I’m beginning to use a large V-gouge to remove the open spaces surrounding the book forming the letter V. I chose not to texturize the area immediately around the book since I want the view to focus on the V shape of the book.
I carved out the negative space with a design so if it accidentally got inked that it would add to the piece. I also like to think of my block itself as object of art.
Having played with a physical book while creating my design, I chose to place the book-letters in my design inside a bookcase. Without the support of the bookshelf frame, a real book would open flat.
Here’s the block before a test print.

I tested the block using some black ink. The first impression (bottom left) showed some of the lines in the negative space. I carved them lower to remove them from the print (top right). I created a cut-out form (upper right) to help me align the block with the paper. I ended up choosing blue ink for the final print (bottom right).

I matted and framed the print before wrapping it as a gift.