The "Crazy Wisdom" of Visual Poet/Trashpoet Jim Leftwich (Roanoke, Virginia, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Jim Leftwich (Roanoke, Virginia, USA)

September 23, 2014 - Around the time of the release of the summer 2014 issue of the DKULTNY Trashpo Fanzine, I proposed that snippets of wisdom emanating from Trashpo luminaries Jim Leftwich and Diane Keys (Elgin, Illinois, USA) be gathered and circulated among trashpoets in TLP (Tacky Little Pamphlet) form, similar to Chairman Mao’s little red book. Then Jim Leftwich mailed me these interesting quotes, employing a fortune cookie style presentation, that might – indeed – provide another model as well as content for the plan to circulate the thoughts of our Trashpo founders.

The multiple copies would suggest these pieces are meant to be distributed further, and so I shall. The topics reflect Jim’s wide-ranging interests: poetry, history, his popular Useless Writing group on Facebook and Sun Ra, among other topics – all relevant to Trashpo theory and practice. These were contained in an excellent envelope:

And the reverse:

Many thanks to Jim Leftwich for this fascinating material that broadens and deepens Trashpo!

[De Villo Sloan]

Rebecca, I added the red background. Jim's color choice for the paper is interesting. I had to make a lot of scanner adjustments so you can read them.

What more can I write in response than Jim truly has an unusual mind? I've already had some exposure due to his postings in the Useless Writing group on FB. In the last fanzine, I reprinted an entire poem, so I'm glad to have these snippets.

[Rebecca Guyver]

Also Rothkopo.  or did you unwittingly place Jim's snippets on the red?  Whatever.  Brilliant.  

The snippets strike me as the sort of things that float into one's mind as one communes with a piece of art, the things you wish wouldn't but do because you are sharing the experience with a hoard of other people.  Or does that only happen to me? Is that toxis?