"Against Creation"

Sovereign of my heart, your temple
Is deep in the dead branches,
Moving only when the wind
Delves so far.

Eden is ago.
I mean, all’s terror Now.
Sovereign of my heart,
I am shouting at nightfall:
Bats above me,
Hummingbirds skittish below the bats,
Almost like dragonflies.

I am shouting into debris.
Immodest happiness in Eden’s humility--
Ago.
Ago.

Adam’s fall invented the future.
He tied the bat’s wings onto dragonflies.
Nature, even as it dies, abhors imagination.
What men call Extinction,
I call Home.

Donald Revell

Against Creation

In November of 2007, the UICB joined the Writers’ Workshop in celebrating the reading of poet Donald Revell. To mark the occasion Visiting Printer Sara Langworthy, in collaboration with students and faculty, designed and printed a broadside of a poem selected by Revell, “Against Creation.”

The broadside is an edition of 175, printed on Gasen Natural Japanese paper from hand set Van Dijck and Bembo types in the UICB collection. The image was made from a series of photopolymer plates processed from hand-altered negatives.

The UICB is happy to offer 55 of these prints, all signed by Revell and numbered, for sale to support the Center’s studios. The edition is limited, so order now while supplies last. All proceeds will go toward the UICB type and equipment fund.

$50 + $5 s/h (+ sales tax for in-state sales)

Donald Revell was born in the Bronx in 1954. A graduate of SUNY-Binghamton and SUNY-Buffalo, he has taught at the Universities of Tennessee, Missouri, Iowa, Alabama, and Denver. Since 1994, he has been a Professor of English at the University of Utah, where he now serves as Director of Creative Writing. His honors include a Pushcart Prize, the Shestack Prize, the Gertrude Stein Award, the PEN Center USA Award for poetry, as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and from the Ingram Merrill and John Simon Guggenheim Memorial foundations. Donald Revell lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, with his wife, poet Claudia Keelan, and their son, Benjamin.

To order this broadside:

E-mail: center-for-the-book@uiowa.edu
Telephone: 319/335-0447
Address: UI Center for the Book, 216 North Hall, Iowa City, IA 52242

Visa, Mastercard, checks & money orders accepted