Dear readers

This is an invitation to correspond.

Jen Hofer

I have a complicated and too often angsty relationship with the territories known as “the internet”—not to mention a complicated and too often angsty relationship with the territories known as “writing.” I avidly (if not-so-speedily) write letters and postcards to send through the actual physical through-snow-and-rain post (hooray for mail carriers and their snazzy racing-stripe pants!), I’ve never blogged, my website is a single image (soon to be expanded into actual information and documentation, I hope) of a knitted creature listening to Serge Gainsbourg while leaning fetchingly against a coffee cup commemorating the demolition of the copper smelting plant in McGill, Nevada, and on listservs and the like I tend to lurk and read and worry rather than participate in the actively loudmouthed way those of you who have met me in the non-virtual world know to be my tendency. Honestly, I’m a lot more comfortable thinking about these commentaries as instigators of conversation rather than as my own mini-monologues into the vast ethers of the ether. I understand and respect the reasons why there isn’t a “comments” feature on these pages (the virtual world hardly lacks opportunities for comment, and the bit of extra effort that might cause a person to think carefully before they hit “send” seems worthwhile to me). Yet I want very fervently to invite you to converse with me openly around the ideas I’m working through in these missives. Please ask me questions. Please lead me down paths I might not have found on my own. Please send me thoughts, queries, ideas and respectful challenges. You can find me on “the facebook” (which I joined approximately five minutes ago) or you can write to the kind editrix of these pages and your comments will reach me or you can write me directly at route.the@gmail.com.

I appreciate your presence here, and the invitation to move from one set of complexities into another/others through these writings. I look forward to being in communication.

Fondly,

Jen

P.S. In case you’re wondering what I’ve been up to poetically lately—other than the aforementioned angst, accompanied (but not soothed) by amassing anti-war-manifesto poems and atomic noir live film narration scripts at a sluggish snail’s pace and occasionally making poems by quilting found, foraged and thrifted papers—I’ve been cutting and collaging poems out of the front page of the daily paper. I think the series is titled “daily news,” but I’m not sure. You can read some of these attempts in forthcoming issues of TRY and With + Stand. Meanwhile, here’s today’s:

April 4, 2011

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trans positions
: in transit: in transition: in translation: in motion: in the between:

Los Angeles artist Sandra de la Loza, of Pocho Research Society fame, created the Stoner Spots series to portray sites temporarily occupied by those in search of illicit, transcendent or solitary experiences. The header image to the left is titled "Flat Tops." When she's not researching stoner spots, Sandra spends her time lock-picking, revitalizing public monuments, and remixing murals.

Heartfelt thanks to Pato Hebert and Michelle Dizon, whose images also graced this space during my tenure as commentator.

Jen Hofer is a poet, translator, interpreter, teacher, knitter, book-maker, public letter-writer, and urban cyclist. Her recent and forthcoming poem sequences and translations are available through a range of autonomous small presses including: Atelos, Counterpath Press, Dusie Books, Kenning Editions, Les Figues Press, Palm Press, and Subpress. She also writes letters for people in public spaces at her escritorio p√∫blico, and makes tiny books by hand at her kitchen table in Cypress Park, Los Angeles. She teaches at CalArts, Goddard College, and Otis College, and works nationally and locally as a social justice interpreter.

Feel free to be in touch with Jen Hofer via post (email or fb message me for my street address) or in the ether at route.the@gmail.com.

Jacket2Commentaries feature invited posts by poets and scholars who take a close, serial look at poetry scenes, archives, poetic concerns, or theoretical clusters. Commentaries, although curated, are not edited by Jacket2 staff. We welcome your comments. Send queries and notes to Commentaries Editor Jessica Lowenthal or contact us at this page.