The beauty in the printing press

When I first came to work in New York in 1981, I worked as a poduction assistant for the Cambridge Book Company. It was here that I met vendors in lithography and offset printing. On occasions when they would invite me to their facilities I would always be impressed by the pressmen and the printing presses. This work is a reflection of my reverence;

The Driving Run Through the Graveyard Shift...
(an homage to the pressman and the printing press)

Gutenberg knew well the sound;

the running press, the making ready.

The driving run through

the graveyard shift. The paper

makes its blanket roll– (‘round) –

the pressman hones his inky skills.

This vehicle of speech;

driving through the graveyard shift.

It cannot run dry. It cannot be silenced.

The pressman eyes his early sheets;

ups the black– the paper makes

its graveyard run... (through the dark of night).

The clanking and cacophony

of the working press– will not be denied –

in its urgency to tell of itself

and its (offset)...