DENISE DUHAMEL: “I wrote a series of prose poems based on the principle of the ‘Johari Window,’ a psychological model used in assessing self-actualization. The four prose poems reflect the ‘windows’ of the self: what the self freely shares with others; what the self hides from others; what others hide from the self; and what is unknown to the self and others. I used the confines of physical spaces of the blinds’ slats to determine the length of my prose poems—and my project involved ‘filling’ those spaces with words. For the ‘Johari Window,’ I constructed prose poems to ‘fit’ on four sides of two Venetian blinds. I printed the words on vellum and attached them to the slats of the blinds, each slat a line. The blinds ‘open’ and ‘close’ to reveal and withhold information.”

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—from Rattle #29, Summer 2008
2008 Pushcart Prize Nominee