Our fascination with the spaces where poets create continues with this entry from Deborah Ager, publisher of 32 Poems and a blogger in her own right. Deborah’s first book, Midnight Voices, will be published in March 2009 by WordTech/Cherry Grove Collection. Her work has appeared in Best New Poets 2006, Best of the Tigertail Anthologies, The Bloomsbury Review, The Georgia Review, New Letters, and Quarterly West. She likes peach cobbler, Joan Didion and post-WWII modernist furniture.

Here’s Deborah:

This desk isn’t just my desk. It’s a desk that belonged a doctor in Annapolis, MD for 50 years. I often wonder how he kept it in such near perfect condition for so long. It’s a desk that’s also known as the M 320W kneehole desk with steam bent drawers. This lingo is used by Heyword-Wakefield collectors — ahem! — geeks to describe this piece of furniture. One of my friends said I am a ‘furniture person’ and that is true. Furniture is art, and I buy it with that in mind. I spent three years looking for the “right” desk. The desk had to be old. The desk had to modern. The desk had to last me until I die, and so far it has.

My second desk belonged to my great-great grandfather. I’ve not yet drafted a poem at it, but I’m thrilled to have it and love its unusual look. I keep writing notebooks in it for now.

With the desk issue out of the way, the other details fell into place. We moved, got more space, had a child, gave up previous writing space, and I relocated into a roomy space upstairs. We painted the walls yellow so that the light from outside creates even more light. I have two windows that let light in but do not let me get distracted by allowing me to see outside. Clever, clever windows!

Above my desk are two black-and-white prints I enjoy. I purposely have no idea where the shots are taken. One looks like a deserted town out west. The other could be southern Spain or Italy or Morocco.

A notable missing element is my laptop, which floats around the house with me as I work and create. Sometimes I sit in a comfy chair, sometimes I sit in bed, and sometimes I sit outside. The other notable missing element is my printer. I decided to set up a printing station elsewhere in the house. Since I rarely use the printer, I did not want it to clutter up my desk. Now I have books in the place where the printer used to sit.

The books rotate. Right now, I have two Joan Didion books. Her writing is gorgeous. If I move to a desert island — which looks better and better these days — I’ll take *The Year of Magical Thinking* with me. I always have a copy of Elizabeth Bishop’s Complete Poems nearby. That book never leaves the rotation. I recently added a bird book after an accidental birding walk taken with a friend. The birding walk was accidental, because I don’t tend to notice a bird unless it happens to unleash its lunch on my head — which has happened unfortunately — but my friend noticed every single bird and could identify them by sound. Needless to say, I was impressed and thought it high time to learn more of the names of these little and important creatures.

To the left, you can see my filing system. 32 Poems mail goes into this right away. I’ve got four compartments with contracts, subscriptions, and the other odds and ends of running a magazine. The addition of this filing system has saved me countless hours.

For me, creating a space to write values the process — especially for a process that does not generate much in the way of revenue — for the sake of process. Having a space gives me permission, peace and a prosperous creative mindset.