Poems from the Archive: Cambodia Bladed

Approximately one year ago, I started publishing Cambodia Bladed on Queen Mob’s Tea House. The serial work of prose poems and black and white photography remains, even today, one of my favorite works. I had no idea what I was doing in it. I still don’t. But I know that it came out of one of the most fantastical periods of my life, and was somehow a process that I could attribute to being in a world that I loved at a time that I was filled with love, curiosity, and (mostly) positive energy.

Cambodia Bladed may be a successful work. It may be significantly flawed. It may be simpler than I build it up to be in my head: that is, it may come off as merely an expat’s exploration of an exotic place, with all the “problems” that exist in that sentiment. Or maybe it’s better than that. Maybe it also contains a little bit of beauty and reflects upon the mesmerization of the everyday that I experienced while living in and around Phnom Penh.

Regardless, the overall work and the process to create something serially, which would go on to influence my writing on Nevada and my trip to Death Valley, was unique and enduring and compelling. It twisted the knife, so to speak. It provided elevation and relief, especially after having lived for one year in Cambodia without creating much of anything by way of personally-innovative writing. Anyway, I could go on, and maybe I will. But for now, I wanted to include PDF prints of the Queen Mob’s publications. These are not perfect preservations, as none of the images within are of the original resolution, and of course, like any saved webpages, the menus and sidebars of the webpage are there as well. But regardless, at least this post will serve as another anchor for this work, and maybe more people will discover it this way. As always, I defer back to the original posts if you want to read the work as it was originally published.

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