When a man is floating Face-down in the racing lane You have to take him by the hand And turn him over to be sure He is not a person anymore That is the lap swim etiquette...
POOL, a collaboration between NECK Press (neck.website) and Midst (midst.press), offers an exploded view of the process of writing a single poem about a man who has drowned in a municipal swimming pool. Each page is a progressively darker shade of blue, mimicking the fading of light as one dives into a body of water, and features a single moment from the poem's creation in linear order (in lieu of page numbers, the book uses timestamps). POOL starts with a completely blank page and ends with a foldout of the completed poem.
35 pages. Printed on a Risograph and bound by hand with blue linen thread by Ryan Paradiso and Annelyse Gelman. Limited to a print run of 80 copies.
To read this book is to enter a piece of art. To walk inside a gallery. To witness the creative process, timestamps and all. Once you open the first page, you will be immersed within a growing pool. Unlike anything I've read before.