Hands on: Marilyn Dumont

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It has occurred to me, lo the last few days, that although writing is an intellectual & imaginative act, writing it down is utterly reliant on the writer's hands.

If you're a writer and your hands don't work, you have to employ the services of all manner of dictation machines, stenographers, and helpmates.

While I would greatly like a helpmate/wife, I would also like to retain the use of my hands.

These hands have been responsible for several books between them. Makes your own hands cramp a little, eh?

So, for your contemplative viewing pleasure, here are the hands of Marilyn Dumont, Joseph Boyden, and Nicole Markotic.

(What you're not seeing is that Marilyn is missing the last joint of her background hand, that Joseph has the word 'jacob' home-tattooed over the lifeline of his foreground hand, and that Nicole attempted to apologize for the veins in her hands.)

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Ariel Gordon is a Winnipeg-based writer and editor. Her poetry has recently appeared in PRISM International, The Fieldstone Review, and Prairie Fire. In addition to being Events Coordinator at Aqua Books, Ariel also contributes to the Winnipeg Free Press' Books Section and Prairie books NOW.

A hand-made, limited-edition chapbook of Ariel's poetry, entitled The navel gaze (with Kingsville, ON's Palimpsest Press), will be launched Oct. 1 at Aqua Books.