Dateline: On Feb. 28, 2000
I turned 64. That would make me 74 now. I wrote the above ode. Famed artist Wis Guthre, now 92 and living at the Avalon Square, took it upon himself to take the ode, and, in his paper-cutting augmentative way, added a birthday greeting on the heel. Click to enlarge.
The poem, in Wis's hands, formed the pasted-in frontispiece of a cut-out book of animal photos Wis gave to me for my birthday. His custom and metier is altering reality. And it is mine. Taking known things and making composites that stand for something else. Wis is the giant in that.
The poem onto which he tacked his heelish name was about the dual totem poles at my former residence. Pieces of them are still 'alive' here.
We ran across this book in sorting through books to go the second-hand bookstore. This one is a keeper. More than ever, it is a collector's item.
More pictures from the book will follow.
Totems, mere vestiges of their former selves......
