My first tattoo

Sometime before father's day - my three daughters, knowing I had been thinking of getting a tattoo, decided that if I really was serious, they would go-in-together and spring for the cost of it. I had been toying with the idea for sometime, and debating what it would be. I was certain I wanted a literary tattoo. Sometimes these are represented by characters from literary works, and other times they may be lines from a piece of literary work. I had actually made a list of several possible verses, Among the possible lines, I considered some from T.S. Elliot, W.S. Merwin, Sylvia Plath, Pablo Neruda, and Kelli Russell Agodon. I decided on a line from one of Agodon's five poetry books.

My daughter, Meghan, who has many tattoos herself took on the task of getting me set up with an appointment and after waiting several months impatiently - our appointment came to pass last Saturday afternoon.

I had decided on a line from one of Kelli Russell Agodon's 5 books. I have read them all, and they are each one in their own way, incredible works. The book that has always held a special place in my heart was Hourglass Museum, published in 2014 by White Pine Press. I think what has always been so significant to me about this book its relation to making art (including writing) and the very creation of it.

The line I chose for my tattoo that you can see pictured below, cones from a poem titled, Line Forms Here.

I want to acknowledge the Tattoo artist, Racheal Cross, owner of The Ink Parlor, who I trusted to skillfully create my tattoo from a stencil that was made from Kelli Agodon's own handwriting of her own work. I felt having her own handwriting was so very cool and I am glad I elected not to just go with a print font -- this makes it so much more personal to me. I Have known Kelli for more than 20 years, and she has always been an inspiration and has driven me where my own writing is concerned. She is also co-founder with Annette Spaulding-Convy of Two Sylvias Press -

I want to say something about the significance of this line. A number of people have asked me about why this one? While the Hourglass Museum really spoke to me in so many ways, this line itself encompases the very state of mind that poets so often need to be in to find their ideal working environment. Writing, and indeed poetry is a very solitary human condition that I love because it affords us the way for us to pull from within own own soul and that is what produces the best writing we can offer the world.