Mimeo | postscript

Sunday, the day after the Mimeo Gathering, my back gave out. Perhaps it was the overwhelming weight of experience that did me in? The Gathering was overwhelming in the best possible way and I'm still processing it all: everyone who came, the poets who read, this incredible mimeo-publication that was created with the involvement of so many. So, here, the first picture (above) of many I'll put up here from the event. I saw this one and thought it the perfect "cover" image to everything I want to say about the experience. It's a shot of the dark side of the mimeo stencil for Richard Krech's poem Hashish Scarab Reaches the Western Shore, flanked by the stick used to ink the mimeo drum.

To say the experience exceeded my expectations is an understatement. We accomplished what we set out to do--fullfill the mimeo process. And I made new friends, met face-to-face with friends I'd formerly known only via the internet. Folks rolled in from Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Grass Valley/Nevada City to take part. That's in addition to the Process Rebels who came from Cleveland and Los Angeles with their Tour of Words and Sal Mimeo (Bill Roberts) who arrived from Deleware the day before the gathering -- his luggage, with the mimeo machine, taking a frightening, and potentially event-cancelling detour to Texas thanks to American Airlines.

--Richard Hansen