Cold Eye Anthology in Development

I'm looking forward to starting another book project (hey, it's what I do, right?) This one is a collection of poems from the short happy life of my literary tabloid Cold Eye, which I published in conjunction with the Northwest Neighbor back in 1979-80. I've been looking at these poems recently and I'm struck again by how accomplished they are. I've posted numerous of them here. They deserve to be in a special volume. Though they represent a sliver of Portland's publishing life from that era, the poems are an important part of the Northwest's literary history. They must be preserved for the record.

The material will make a nice, tight volume and feature an introduction by KC Bacon, the talented Tacoma artist and poet whom I've written about previously in this blog. For my preface I'll likely use a chapter from my memoir which recalls the literary venue The Long Goodbye. I met numerous of the poets that will be featured in the collection at the legendary artists' hangout.

In addition to its featured poems the book will include three entertaining and lucid interviews with Northwest writers Katherine Dunn, James Bash, and Walt Curtis.

KC has a solid grasp of the Cold Eye poems. We talked briefly about collaborating on this project years ago. It's come full circle, I guess. With POD it will be easier than ever and result in a very fine book indeed.

KC and I collaborated on a number of projects in the nineties, including drafts of several screenplays and a 70 min. feature adaptation of William Faulkner's short story "Artist at Home." KC played a role and did a fine job. He and a group of other talented actors carried this project, which was unfortunately flawed by poor VHS technology, no-budget, my less than stellar directing and editing, and occasional sound problems. It was a learning experience, I must say. One day I would like to post the feature to the Internet. Better yet, I wish I could find the raw video and do a reedit. Chris Thompson produced the project and packed the raw footage off to his retirement in Washington years ago, I think. Chris died in July and the footage could be anywhere, or even destroyed. What small expenditure we put up on the project came out of Chris's pocket. So I guess he owned it.

The performers were the strength of the project, titled "What Time Remains," about a dying poet who begins an affair with his friend's wife. The project really needed some technical assistance. One of its strengths was the soundtrack, however, featuring original compositions by Jim Wylie and Steve Christofferson.

Unfortunately, I don't even have my finished copy of it at this time. Maybe one will emerge from the ether, or a certain female will finally acquiesce to my wishes and return my copy to me.

Anyhow, keep your eyes open for the Cold Eye project, which I've set for an Oct. 1 deadline. Things are rolling along.

Here is Carol Knox's fine poem, A Moment of Silence After Words Spoken in Anger.


During the night
a small cold wind grows
into a Northeaster.
The pond freezes so
quickly the goldfish hang suspended.
You can look down through the ice and see them,
caught in gleaming arcs perfect
as an infant’s fingernails.
It takes the space of several heartbeats to
realize they are already dead.


Carol Knox

TS