Summer, as depicted by Richard Bigus

 Summer

Sitting on a gatepost,

a slow fog

enters

over marsh,

stars vanish.

Branches break,

hesitate,

break.

Fur dripping,

steps on a road.

Surf's echo

This poem by Richard Bigus about fog, marsh, and surf takes on new dimensions when rendered on paper by him.

"Summer" (1974). One of twenty-three copies signed by Bigus.

An example of concrete printing, this broadside is printed using various sizes of type handset at different angles. The diminishing size of the type in the last line and its multi-directionality evoke the fading presence of the "surf's echo," perhaps better than the blue linocut by Tom Killion depicting the same surf above. 

Bigus learned the craft of printing under the tutelage of William Everson and Jack Stauffacher at U.C. Santa Cruz. There he printed a few books of his own verse as well as broadsides of concrete and haiku poetry, such as this one. For him, the visualization of the word became paramount. We think he achieved that goal quite well here.

We wish everyone a warm, restful summer, filled with the poetry of nature.

Best wishes,

Bromer Booksellers

P.S. You can view another example of Richard Bigus' work that we featured on this blog last year here. He completed that work four years after this broadside, and you can see the level of mastery he achieved in his approach to concrete printing in that amount of time.