PAPOLíTICO, Poems of a Political Persuasion
by Jesús Papoleto Meléndez
with an Introduction by Joel Kovel and Deedee Halleck
APR. 2018 | ISBN: 978-1-940939-73-5 (Print)
JUN. 2018 | ISBN: 978-1-940939-88-9 (eBook)
BOOK INFO | AVAILABLE @ AMAZON
When I approached Papo in 2017 about doing a book, the goal was to launch a chapbook division at 2Leaf Press, with his chapbook being the first. He came up with the idea of PAPOLíTICO, which I immediately loved. I loved the idea of publishing some politically inspired poetry, especially in the surreal age we find ourselves living in today.
“Send me about 40 pages of poetry, Papo,” I told him. “As a chapbook, I think we should use artwork.” Instead, he sent me over 100 pages. “Papo, you need to edit these pages down, 100 pages is too much for a chapbook. Plus, I want more new poems.”
“But Gabrielle, I love these poems. I like it the way it is.”
“Then this is no longer a chapbook, it’s a full-length book of poems.”
This was the birth of PAPOLíTICO. And the chapbook series’ launch was cancelled.
I spend about a good six months working with poets on their poetry books. The process entails layout, design, look and feel, typesetting, and working with Sean Dillon, who is an excellent poetry editor. Working on PAPOLíTICO was no exception. The book evolved from a 5×8 book, into a 6×9 book and after I almost killed myself typesetting Papo’s cascading style in that format, I opened the book into an 8.5×8.5 size book so there would be enough space to spread the poems out, plus keep my sanity.
Since the name of the collection was so outrageous and such a showstopper, we decided to simplify the look of the book, and opted out of including artwork in the book altogether. The cover was initially going to be a plain white cover that would highlight the book title, but at the last minute, we felt it was missing something and submitted an alternative with news headlines in the background to match the theme and subject matter of the book. Papo loved it.
Papo and I have known each other for over 25 years. We are friends as well as collaborators. We argue, but are never disrespectful toward each other. From the very beginning, Papo has been involved in all of my publishing projects, but when we worked on this book I was reminded how “sensitive” (kind word) poets can be. When I typeset Papo’s poetry in the 1990s, Word documents on the PC and Mac could not be shared. In fact, in those days I had to scan the submissions into the computer, with much of the work typed from scratch,. I also spent endless nights counting spaces to replicate the poetry envisioned by the poets. With Papo’s cascading poems, this was kind of nightmarish, but I did it lovingly. With today’s technology, I no longer have to do that because I can place the poetry directly from Word into InDesign, with much of the spacing intact. Just as well, I have tons to do these days and can no longer afford to be as noble as I once was. Having said that, Papo knows every single space of his poetry, and if it is off by one or two spaces, he insists on correcting it, which drives me absolutely nuts.
I am getting too old for this. I grit my teeth. The corrections are taking forever. This book will never get done.
But what’s interesting is that Papo ignores my pissy attitude because all he sees is his poetry. He considers elements of his poetry as living beings. He’ll say, “Gabrielle, can we move this guy over here next to this one?,” which makes perfect sense to him because as far as Papo is concerned, life is a living breathing poem. For him, the words on the page and life is interchangeable.
PAPOLíTICO is Papo’s finest work to date. I encourage you to read it.
