A song of lament

Description

This letterpress poster was designed, carved, written, and hand-printed in October 2020.

Poster size is 14.5” x 26”

The two-color poster was printed with a split-fountain process, applying both colors of ink to the press at once. The image on the poster is a hand-carved linocut of the clothespins used to suspend our posters from the drying rack.

The original words on the poster read:

A song of lament

In smoke and darkness we cry out
but we are given no answers from heaven.
No prophets remain and the final scattered
truths went out with the last tide.
None of us knows how long the darkness
will last. We suffer from our hurtful lips
and our own lying tongues. The night passes
away in anger. How long? How long?
When will the morning come that we
may run along Ruston Way and rejoice?
O Tacoma, what must you do
so every head rests on a pillow?
O Tacoma, how long until
every sidewalk feels like safety
beneath every foot that walks there?
How will you become the city
where unclenched hands rise up like vapor?
How will you become the city
where mercy washes away the smoke
like rain?