07.28.21Poetry and Ellmer Stefan

All of the songs I write remain half-finished and unresolved as most of my experiences are. Lyrics isolated from the music are often read cheesy, but oh well, I’m not releasing a demo here:

Late spring 2021

It blooms
Put it in a vase
Change the water
Watch it fade

I see it coming
Tomorrow’s wilt
Remember the color
Press it in a book

Archive

—

January 2020

Feel no warmth
Lost inside
Distant friends
Timid love
Where is home

Cruise control
to elsewhere
Cold feet
ice
Shaking hands
Snow burns eyes

Clear blue skies
Frozen wake
Sun above
Cracking lake
Bless the warmth

—

February 2020

Fade into
the blue
of distance

Past
sunk cost
Present
not here
Daydream
always

I-
solate
my-
self for
one more
year

I
don’t know
where
why
how?

Past
sunk cost
Present
not here
Daydream
always

I-
solate
my-
self for
one more
year

I
don’t know
where
why
how?

Fade into
the blue
of distance

—

The closest I’ve gotten to being succinct with words / as memorable as journaling.

—

Ellmer Stefan / Stefan Ellmer gave a talk at the Letterform Archive today, and I felt represented. One point he made was typefaces are potential literature. I have been calling typefaces the material of language, but potential literature frames it more actively and implies a creativity. He also mentioned how typeface marketing can be a practice of poetry. Falls in line with what I aspire and have been thinking about. The arc of his practice also follows a philosophical origin with formal exploration to conceptual questioning to engaging with the larger layers of culture and art—it is richly varied in a natural, organic, and paced way. Am I projecting? Anyway, he is also collaborative. His practice is very whole yet focused.

He was asked what projects are in store for the future, and his answer was he doesn’t have anything planned long-term. When he gets bored, he pivots. He considers what practically merits becoming a typeface, which is a question that I’m unsure people ask enough. The compulsion to systematize something into a typeface seems problematic at times. The medium is the message. I don’t know if people understand enough why typefaces are what they are, as opposed to lettering or calligraphy or illustrative writing (a nuance Ellmer pointed out). Working in the production side of a ranged typeface illuminates how industrial the practice is and how it reflects the demands of a capitalist society. I think my goal is to increase the percentage of time spent on making the idea and decrease the time spent on perfecting the idea to death (production work). Small-scale typefaces that are useful enough and make a greater cultural impact.

It was reassuring to see a practice revolving around language and the language of letters, rather than only about typefaces.

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