Tryst Press | Broadsides

Tryst Press | Broadsides | Leather

Only two copies of this broadside remain for sale. "Leather" is the first publication of Leslies Norris's final poem. The warm, autobiographical verse is reproduced from handset type and beautifully accompanied by a single, golden autumn leaf, a woodcut by Robert Buchert. This broadside is signed by Leslie Norris, and is a fine, rare piece to add to any collection of his marvelous work. (Scroll down to read text.)

Letterpress. Edition of 40.
8.875 x 17.25 inches.
$165.00 plus tax and shipping.

Leather
by Leslie Norris

Their father rarely came home empty-handed.
He had his ready stories, quietly told,
the better way in which to make the world
of his adventures. The wicked geese on guard
at Beynon's farm. The three old sisters
who had known his mother and fed him
with stale cake. All this was magical.

He carried mysteries in his pockets.
A curious stone found at the roadside,
an egg no bigger than a finger-nail,
and once a book whose words were locked
in an alien language and never
could be told. Who knew what he would bring?
But always in the fall he brought home leather.

In cool September, looking at their shoes,
he'd shake his head, and think, and then decide
how best to mend them for the winter. He'd bring
his chosen leather, a sufficient sheet.
They'd watch his cobbler's lasts, his hammers,
the meticulous wide knife to shape their feet,
the small tacks kept in line between his lips.

So the tapping work went on. When all was done
he'd burnish each small shoe to a sturdy gloss,
replace the tattered laces. "Good as new,"
he'd say. The three boys bustling to school
in the morning, hearing their bright feet ring
on the road, thought them better than new, wore
them proudly. With love, not knowing it then.