Trauma Head is a limited edition chapbook I made in 2018 to keep my hands busy while I waited for my second book of poetry to be printed. It is a collection of poems and concrete interventions into the medical file. In fact, the binding IS a medical file. I liked the name for this so much I used to for the full-length poetry collection, too.
I used the graphs, charts, reports and info from my treatment for vertebral artery dissection and stroke as one part of the content. The other is the poems, explorations and word games that are related to the events in the book but not suited to the more formal long poem format.
This is the “b-side” of the album.
Lately, it has been satisfying to make things with my hands. Trauma Head is all cut-and-paste, produced entirely on photocopiers with Sharpies, double-sided tape, transparencies, and scissors. I liked the tension between the reproduced high tech MRI scans and the analog process. You’ll notice my slanted scissor skills, the gaps between paste jobs. More than intentional this is unavoidable, and a reminder that no matter how machine-driven we become we remain softly human.
Ultimately, what does all the advanced technological testing reveal? How advanced are we? What can we know without touching?
Trauma Head has an ISBN (Otter Press) but the first run was a scant 50 copies, which sold out. In spring 2018 I did a second printing, which also sold out.
Thank you to Ali Blythe for taking these photos of the beautiful afternoon he helped me bind it. Ali has the first copy and we made sure to use the appropriate alphabetical labels, BLY, on the edge. Mine has my initials, EKG, on it.
I personalized each copy for the purchaser with their chosen three letters.
Dina del Bucchia helped launch Trauma Head at the VAG Patio Cafe on Thursday, August 31, 5pm-8pm.
Press
The handmade medical file chapbook, Trauma Head (Otter Press, 2017) was shortlisted for the bpNichol Chapbook Award in 2018 and the 2015 Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry.