SELF-PORTRAITS from almost two decades ago. I was going back through one of my old journals and found a couple of entries that I had almost forgotten. I was apparently doing some heavy introspection during that period. I was also doing the "photo-du-jour" at that time, so I looked closely at the photographs for the days to see if I could remember what triggered the close look at myself. On October 17, 1990, I took a picture of the Presidio Museum...no clue there. The picture for October 22 was a close-up of a rose against a cinderblock wall that I recognize as being on the campus of the lower school at Francis Parker School. The "You and Me" visual poem was done on October 15, 1990; and the picture for that day was Margaret. That makes sense.

I think it was at about the time the poems were written that I was getting rid of the old IBM "Selectric" typewriter in my office at Parker. I remember going through a little period of mourning as I gave up the typewriter altogether and switched to the computer. I guess I made the self-portraits during those final days of my long love affair with the typewriter...because I could. I could move the paper in the carriage of the typewriter and make the letters print where I wanted them to print. Of course, I could now do the same thing with the sophisticated computer programs that I use; but it wouldn' have been possible on my 1990 computer. How could I have imagined what amazing things we could do on the computer just a couple of decades from then.

By the way, you can always see a larger version of an image in the BLOG by simply clicking on it. Will wonders never cease! It's something that couldn't have happened with my old typewriter...but sometimes I still miss it.
YOU AND ME IN A LANDSCAPE