selected, designed, and typeset by julia
three squared cinquains
john lee clarkthree squared cinquains
three squared cinquains
written by john lee clark designed by julia eversmannThree Squared Cinquains
A Chapbook, Copyright © 2024 by Julia Eversmann
Developed in ARTD 444 Typographic Systems
Molly C. Briggs, Instructor
Spring 2024
School of Art & Design
University of Illinois Urbana - Champaign
Three Squared Cinquains is an original typographic re-setting of “Three Squared Cinquains” from How to Communicate: Poems, Copyright © 2023 by John Lee Clark. New York: W. W. Norton.
John Lee Clark is an award-winning poet, essayist, historian, and translator. He is also a deafblind activist in the Protactile movement. His acclaimed How to Communicate: Poems, 2023, reflects on the subjective nature of communication through a variety of poetic forms including haiku, prose poems, “erasures,” and more.
contents Foreword 7 The Reporter Is in Awe 9 Am I a Nobody, Too? 11 One Afternoon, I Found Myself 13
foreword
Three Squared Cinquains, although being only one poem from a collection of many more, deserves a larger space to fully appreciate its contents. Poet John Lee Clark explores his frustrations in being perceived as a miracle for simply existing as a DeafBlind person. If you’re reading this, you are at the very least a sighted person, and that means that this poem is directed towards you. Reflect on your own ideas on what it means to be DeafBlind, and hear John Lee Clark as he shows you what it truly means.
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the reporter is in awe
of a DeafBlind man who cooks without burning himself!
Helen Keller is to blame.
Can’t I pick my nose without it being a miracle?
11
am i a nobody, too?
I am sorry to disappoint, but I am. Yet nobody would let me be one, not even when I catch a bus stinking of Nobodies.
13
one afternoon, i found myself
walking with my cane dragging behind me. I well knew the way. There was nothing to see. Everything saw me first and stayed in place.
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This book was designed and edited by Julia Eversmann in Champaign, Illinois. The poem was written by John Lee Clark.
The typeface used is Adobe Caslon Pro, designed by Carol Twombly as a revival of William Caslon's original typeface.
The book is saddle-stitched, with the cover on cover-weight paper and the pages on text-weight paper.
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