Asthma Song

“My lungs my lungs
where have you been roaming?”
“We’ve been chasing through brambles
“while you were sleeping:
“Down in the dirt
“there’s a tunnel, then a cavern,
“a fox runs through them
“with the wind in its teeth,
“a wren flops there
“breath-shaped & fluttering
“a cricket sings near there
“a song that sounds like coughing
“a river runs under
“part magma & part medicine
“a winded horse runs
“a gaping man reins it
“behind him on his thin horse
“a woman lean as splinter wood
“wheezes in his ear
“‘Oh my dear! Oh my dear!’
“as they turn all night
“as they turn all night
“& gallop
“ever-tighter circles
“in the coffin light.”

J.G.

This disease was the scourge of my youth.

Judith Hoffberg, book artist, art critic, and editor of Umbrella, stayed with us at Hotel Glass last May. Her account of her stay and her Judith-centric experience of Japan can be found in the August, 2004, issue of Umbrella.

For anyone interested in alternative art: mail art, performance, book works, etc., Umbrella is the guide to get. For subscription info., or to purchase individual copies, contact umbrella@fx.netcom.com, or visit the Umbrella website at http://colophon.com/journal.

We hope to present a gallery of received works for my own on-going mail art project, Swedenborg’s Airplane, at the Ahadada Books site in future.

Update: The exhibit is now up in our newly-formed Gallery; you can jump directly to the gallery by clicking here. Contributions from: Mark K. Cain, Clemente Padin, John M. Bennett, Gianni Simone, Jesse Glass, Pete Spence, Ella Joosten, Roberto Scala, Rose Garden, Shmuel, and Bernd Reichert. Check it out!