I recently came across a sewn microchap set aside in a pile that I brought in as samples of chapbooks for students, to show some examples of handmade poetry books that might inspire their own. Cleveland Wall’s “Regarding Certain Stalwart Integers: A Primer” is an understated, simple book no more than four inches tall without images or color. We have text, and an emphasis on the numbers she celebrates. The poems are short, but clever.
41
Very European. Striped, ticking and brisk.
Or this whimsical ode to 79: The warped glass in leaded panes is like a dream. A cat lives here.
This book is one of those cool gems that you’d like more copies of to share. Cleveland Wall is playful, whimsical, but her words have an academic density- they bear weight.
You can find out more about Cleveland under our evolving and growing “Poet Pages” on Lehigh Valley Poetry.
