Hello and welcome to the 2021 Thanksgiving Menu-Poem. This is the twentieth incarnation of the Thanksgiving Menu-Poem! This year our guest of honor is Hank Lazer. This poem series represents a combination of autumnal and visual poetries as a tribute to the magnificent works he has created. I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with Hank over the past year publishing his book, field recordings of mind in morning. We had such a good time it was a natural decision to ask him to be this year’s guest of honor.

I had been a fan of Hank Lazer’s work for decades now. His poetry is about openness and experimentation with a questioning attentiveness that blends expressions of meaning with the visual. His work has evolved through the LANGUAGE movement to spontaneous writing to unique handwritten books to musical collaborations. His combination of poetry, writing, and color expand the notion of how the poem can be expressed. His writings take shape in freeform spirals and other organizations, merging to the shape of the page size, which often determines the look of his poem. This artistic text art creates moments of contemplation and introspection for the reader. Everything exceeds intention in Lazer’s writing and it is so very exciting. The title of the Menu-Poem comes from his 2019 book, Slowly Becoming Awake (N32),and the poem, 9/7/16 Carrolton (p38). Written in brown ink:

      is that a voice
a friend in the distance

I hope that this menu-poem adequately expresses my appreciation for him while creating a sense of harmony that interprets my understanding of his work. Or instead of harmony maybe a better word would be a free-translation, or an invocation of the intention Lazer creates.

I hope you enjoy this meal, the menu and the poem. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Rockets, Geoffrey