There is Black

Poems by Elijah Perseus Blumov are on the press

This past weekend I started the ink to paper phase of a chapbook of poems by Elijah. Leading up to the weekend, I prepared for the work by stargazing at Death Valley. At the lowest elevation in North America, 300 feet below sea level, at 3 am, I was struck by the blackness of the mountain below the clouds of Milky Way. It looked something like this photo that I found from the local Friends of NASA chapter.

The ground is bright white salt and the hills are jet black.

When I returned home, the first thing I did was pick up a brand new can of black ink. This is a rarity as letterpress ink lasts about ten years. What a pleasure to open this can! This color is touted by the ink manufacturer as a true, dark black, ideal for soft, uncoated paper.

The clean, black ink surface reflecting the ceiling.

I’m going to show you what I would have brought your attention to that day had you been working with me. I would have certainly asked you to watch the ink distribute on the disk. That’s a fascinating part of a printing day.

It takes a few minutes for the ink to spread.

The disk revolves counter-clockwise as the rollers roll up and down and it takes a few minutes until the ink is spread in an even thin layer on the disk and rollers.

When the press is fully inked up, it makes a very slight slurping sound. It’s ready for printing! Everything went to plan and I was able to print the first poem of the chapbook. What I’m skipping over here is several hours of cutting paper on a giant guillotine- a painful and purgative process.

A sneak peak at a poem and the end sheet paper.

The ink is amazingly black! It looks slick next to the paper I want to use for the end sheet. Later that evening, reading David Yezzi’s “French Suites” in More Things in Heaven, I came across the line, “There’s black and then there is blacker than black.” I think I should play my Satie LP while enjoying this black lettering and this poem about the most universally unpitied victim of tragedy. And then, I’ll try to plan out my evening tomorrow so that I can start work on the next poem. I’m not printing them in the order they appear in the book. I’ll print all the versos (left-hand pages) since they have the same set-up on the press. I hope every letter in this book is blacker than black.