The journey of 51 poems began with a nine-year global odyssey that plucked David Bailey from his Southern California home and led him to India, Nepal, Mexico and St. Louis, Mo. in what he calls “a personal quest to find something real.” In the end, he found himself in Inverness.
At the now-defunct Blackbird Café, Mr. Bailey met Ben Livingston and Jordan Atanat in 2012, the year they began developing a West Marin-centric journal with Nina Pick, Katie Eberle and Jeremy Harris. The Inverness Almanac would go on to produce four volumes that reflected the community’s wisdom, knowledge and connection with the land. Now the group has created a publishing company, Mount Vision Press, and released its first book, of Mr. Bailey’s poems.
“For me, if I think back to the formative moment, it was David’s work,” Ms. Pick said of the press’s conception. “I saw him read in Inverness a couple of times and I thought, ‘Wow, we should publish his work.’ It was a really natural segue into the next phase of our work together.”
The origins of the press reach back to the publication of the journal’s second volume. “After making two of them, we realized we liked making books,” Mr. Livingston said. “We wanted to expand to include full books, and David was the logical next step.”
Mr. Bailey had contributed as an editor during the almanac’s “dream phase,” but later left after his daughter was born and he and his partner, Amelia, and newborn Rowan moved to Missouri. It was while he was away that he received a call from Mr. Atanat with a proposal for his unpolished collection of poetry.
Mount Vision Press functions as a consensus-based group and each member—all millennials—dons several hats. For instance, Mr. Livingston and Ms. Eberle work on the graphics, while Ms. Pick, who works as an editor by trade, does the line-by-line editing. The members meet every Wednesday night in their office above the Old Western Saloon. Their goal is to put out work that feels important to the local landscape, something you can hold in your hand, Mr. Livingston said.
“We want to put something real into the world,” he said. “In the media we’re berated with so much information. What’s going to stick?” When the group first released news of the press online, he said ideas and pitches quickly began to pour in. “I feel like we won’t be hurting for projects,” he said.
Ms. Pick began editing Mr. Bailey’s collection of poems about a year and a half ago, and she said it wasn’t a terribly lengthy process. The result is “Journeywork,” which pulled its name from a Walt Whitman quote (“a leaf of grass is no less than the journeywork of the stars”) and hit the shelves at Point Reyes Books last week.
The book roughly follows Mr. Bailey’s travels; toward the end, the poem “Inverness” describes the effect that Mount Vision initially had on him: “Turning the branch-arched path into a caricature of a quest, and you divide yourself into a novel wanting it to come true.”
“I had this feeling of finally finding a home and a balance,” he said. “I think this whole land, to me, feels like my spiritual home. I want to share the book and give to the community as much as I’ve been given.”
Mr. Bailey and his family are again living in Inverness, where he said he’s ready to settle in and watch the release of his life’s work. “I think living with the poems for so long, I felt a sense of love for them. They were my babies!” he said. “It was vulnerable to entrust them into other people’s hands but I feel so fortunate to be working with people who have a strong sense of integrity and intention.”
About Mount Vision Press, Mr. Bailey said, “It’s not just about making art, but what can we do with art. They have a deep desire to make an offering to the community and culture at large with something of value and with a transcendental edge. I feel blessed to be working with people like that.”
A release party for “Journeywork” will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 18, following a reception for new exhibits at Gallery Route One—including a retrospective of the art featured in the Inverness Almanac.