Todd Boss, poet

At the annual conference of the Associated Writers and Writing Programs this year, I had the joy of encountering this beautiful 7 x 7 broadside of my poem, “Today It Seemed I Had Nothing to Say,” letterpress printed by Kerri Cushman with a woodcut by JJ Eisfelder in a numbered edition of 100. It was printed for me by the Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review where the poem, now collected in Pitch, first appeared.

Isn’t it handsome?

This broadside is SOLD OUT … I have 0 remaining.

The poem goes like this:

TODAY IT SEEMED I HAD NOTHING TO SAY

that hadn’t been said already—

my head full of moldy

hay and feelings

of futility—

until you asked me

what it was like, for a change,

to have no barred owl

brooding above the barn,

and so I went stealing again,

softly, softly

up the worn wood loft ladder,

hoping to startle up

a glimpse of something

that even now might heft

itself lightly through the mouth

of the mow, and drift just

out of view, off-levelly,

all hollow and feather pillow,

folding and unfolding

and folding itself silently into

the forest where its terrible

utility moves like a shudder

over every living thing.