In 2004 I had the bright idea of starting up a poetry imprint for Cordite Poetry Review: Cordite On Demand (or COD). It was a short-lived venture, to say the least, but we did publish two books, and also set up an equally short-lived website.

The first book published by COD was the idiosyncratically titled OI: poewemz bii tom see (2004), which was actually written by Tom Clark, with illustrations by Charles Lake.

The poems in the book are written in Tom’s trademark phonetic style: see ‘Heet’, which was published in Cordite’s first issue in print, or a later poem, ‘Tramz’, for example.

The book itself was designed to mimic the shape and size of a record cover, with the titles printed on the back as if it was an album rather than a book. Looking back, this was definitely an exercise in discovery: trying to work out how to design and format an object that was true to the author’s style and personality.