Those are my "Egg Poem."

I am Charlie Baum, the significant other of Elisabeth Higgins Null (Lisa Null), who is Dick Higgins' sister. Through her, I got to know Dick, and shared a common love of letter design.

In the bowl are four dozen eggs. On each of the dozen eggs, a letter from the name "DICK HIGGINS" in inscribed. Each dozen features a different calligraphic hand and a different color ink. One alphabet is black letter, inscribed in black ink. An uncial alphabet is written in red; a foundation hand is marked in blue. Lastly, a chancery cursive (italic) alphabet is written in brown ink.

The name of Dick Higgins is only eleven letters long. On the twelfth egg of each of the dozens, arrows were drawn, using strokes characteristic of each calligraphic hand. The black letter arrows were based on the hexagons used to form black letters. The uncial arrows were very round circles. The foundation hand arrows were drawn with serifs. And the chancery arrows were each two sides of a triangular shape with rounded corners.

The poem is a reprise of the eggs I prepared for the feast following Dick Higgins' funeral in Barrytown, New York in November. It is based on a traditional Jewish custom that the first food consumed by mourners returning from a funeral or burial is a hard boiled egg. Given Dick's interest in concrete poetry, letterforms, and meals as performance pieces, it made sense to inscribe his name on the eggs and then shuffle them randomly in the bowl.

The bowl is an inexpensive party bowl purchased from Marjack's on Holton Lane in Takoma Park, Maryland. It is the same kind of bowl used in Barrytown, but it is not the original bowl. The original bowl was left behind in Barrytown, and used for other leftovers of the funeral meal. Four dozen extra-large eggs were purchased from the Giant Supermarket at Blair Park, Silver Spring, Maryland, and then hard-cooked in my kitchen in Silver Spring. The original eggs in Barrytown were consumed at the funeral feast, except for those which were saved by people who were either cholestrol-conscious or egg-collectors.

I wasn't sure whether to put the bowl on the art table or the food table. After the event at the Judson church, the eggs were offered to attendees as either food or mementos.