poemstore

Last week at the Nelson-Atkins in KC, Becky and I saw a really fun installation, poemstore by Oakland artist Zach Houston. In a large room, surrounded by his drawings and poems, Zach sat at a typewriter and offered original poems made on the spot, your topic, your price. Seeking some inspiration for the sight-specific composition I'm working on for a loading dock, I asked if he could write a poem about a loading dock and slipped him a 10. This is what he came up with. I think it's pretty great, and very relevant to what my cousin and I are working on.  After his torrent of inspiration and typewriter noise, Zach explained that much of San Francisco has been built on top of waste that was thrown into the bay and built up over time to form solid ground (hence the SF reference at the end).