I’ve been making oblique references to my Box Project for a while now, so I guess I should just say it. I make poem boxes. From the statement I just put on my site:
In the fall of 2016 I began to make poem boxes, and they have been obsessing me ever since. They won’t leave me alone. But no complaints: I love their company.
What is a poem box? So many answers. I could say: My boxes are like (inspired by) Cornell boxes, but each of my boxes interprets one of my poems. Or: They are poetic shadow boxes, dioramas, each a small contained universe, habitats where verse lives, a literary sculpture project.
Some of my poem boxes have accompanying lyric essays that I wrote as I built them. Notes on process, ingredient lists, additional poem bits inspired by their construction; whatever fits.
I hope to show them to the world someday, my poem boxes and their corresponding essays. For now I’m keeping them close. I’ve been sending them to a few journals, all of which consider words and images that are already online to be published and thus ineligible for consideration. So: You won’t see them here or on my site, not yet, though there are some in-process photographs on my Instagram.
Aside from extended world travel, this might be the most exciting thing I’ve ever done.