Arenella's Perplexity

In today’s mail, a new photomail photocard from Roy Arenella. (He has labeled this “212 P/C,” meaning it is 212th mailing of the year and it is a postcard. “L+E”—I’ve recently discovered—means “letter and envelope.” He numbers in one sequence both L+E’s and P/C’s.)

The obverse of the card features a visual poem (dated 28 February 2001) that is a bit different from earlier ones. Still white block letters on a black field, but this one includes a small bit of a photograph of an apartment building. Entitled “An Old Story & How I See It,” the poem consists of the word WORLD with the L rising out of the sequence of letter and tilting backwards to form something of a V shape. Rested within the angle of the titled V is a triangle of the aforesaid photograph.

The reverse of the card includes a false cancellation that includes an oblong projection of the globe. Affixed to the card are a 22-cent LOVE stamp and a “G” rate stamp. Roy’s note includes a message about how strange it is to read qbdp: the mailartworks and “read the contents of a photo/card” he’d just sent and that it is “odder still to read about a card” I’ve sent him that he has yet to receive.

[So he’s figured out part of the point of this weblog!]

He’s lucky I never post a facsimile image of the cards I send until a few days transpire. And he’s also lucky that I won’t respond to this card till tomorrow.

Roy Arenella, "An Old Story & How I See It," 28 Feb 2001
un violon d’ingres