A collaborative project based on my poem “Touched,” about my first and only meeting with my maternal grandfather, has been published in Soundzine! This poem tells how I entered the world just as my Irish grandfather was dying of cancer. We were in the same hospital, and the nurse brought me down to meet him as soon as I was born. He went into a coma that night and passed on three days later.
The poem was first displayed on a broadside next to the tile mosaic alchemy circle Victor Ventura created to accompany the piece, as part of a collaborative installation at The Front Gallery in Tucson. My husband, Michael Hieber, added an auditory component to the display by recording me reading and playing singing bowl. He mixed down the tracks into an ethereal texture that adds a whole dimension to the experience. Thanks to Victor Ventura and Michael Hieber for their work on the project, Lin Cohorn for curating the exhibit for which we originally created it, and Casa Libre en la Solana for providing an occasion for the Front Gallery’s 2010 fundraiser. A big thank you to Arlitia Jones, who had me writing two poems a week in her workshop when I completed the first draft. Thanks also to Sandra Kleven for her encouraging feedback on early incarnations of “Touched.”
