Paul Boccaccio

A month or so ago I watched Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and loved it (Michael Cera exudes the Neeson effect: he makes otherwise mediocre movies watchable). After draining my heart of sap build-up, I started thinking about the idea of mixing music; how to do it, what holds songs together, the purpose of a mix, and so on. Then I realized I know very little about music, and don’t care about music as much as I care about poetry. So, I decided to make mixes of poems instead.

In the nascent spirit of papernet, I’m going to post PDFs of these mixes (on what schedule, I have no idea). My friend, Tofer Moran, designer, artist, musician and et-cetera-extraordinaire, is helping me lay it out.  He had the idea to make it one zoo-map-like sheet, as opposed to my idea of cutting books and stapling and so forth. This is why I pass ideas through my friends. Because their ideas are good. And less work. The single sheet is more true to the idea of papernet, and it looks so cool; you would not believe it.

Bricabrac (the title was his idea also) will be one 11″x17″ sheet, folded into eight sections, surrounded by another 8.5″x11″ sheet folded into an envelope. You’ll be able to print it out and assemble it yourself, or you can email me your address and I’ll mail you one I put together. I might read the poems aloud and post the recording as well; I’m not sure. I’ll almost certainly read my own poems aloud at some point.

I’ve never edited an antholody, or magazine, or even made a mix of music, so I have no idea what I’m doing. That’s ok by me. There’s no real criteria for these poems, they’re just the ones I’ve noticed lately. And if you love a particular poem or poet, let me know down there in the comments. Bricabrac is all about sharing good poetry.