MANHATTAN: AN ARCHAEOLOGY

This happened fairly quickly--unexpectedly, a new press but which I've been admiring for its  gorgeously-designed products, asked me for a manuscript. You know me: manuscripts I can do! So I gave them something I'd been putting together on the urban theme. When I edited it for submission, I realized I could narrow the title's focus from URBAN to what it is: MANHATTAN.  So I'm pleased to share the cover of my next book from Paloma Press (click on images to enlarge), MANHATTAN: An Archaeology:

And I thought that it'd be interesting to see some of the images that arose as the cover design developed--these are some of the images that were passed (in chronological order) until the cover was finalized:

The chair is a Side Chair from the Herter Brothers of New York, one of the first furniture makers and interior decorating firms in the U.S. after the Civil War. As you can see from the 2nd and 3rd images in the 5-image line-up, the chair's image at first was left undisrupted. I posited (and partly to reflect the poems) that the chair should be disrupted as one usually is not looking at an undamaged relic in archaeology and to reflect the non-classical content of the book. I actually love the above fifth image but, for book cover purposes, it'd be too busy once text (title and byline) is added, per below:

Thus we ended up with my favorite color, blue, for background.

My thanks to Aileen Cassinetto and Cecilia Ibardaloza for book design. They did a great job!

"BIG CITY CANTE INTERMEDIO"

Deeply grateful to Tea & Tattered Pages and its curator Amanda Ngoho Reavey for presenting my poem and urban meditation on several cities, "Big City Cante Intermedio," as a Panthalassa Pamphlet.  You can see the ten-page pamphlet poem HERE. Cities covered are New York City, Provence, Ukiah, Baguio City, Barcelona, Vienna and Paris. Here's an excerpt:

I digressed to show how in New York

City (pop.: 8.4 million, est. 2013)

one can be anyone one wants to be

or try,

as in to discover if a fit improbably

exists so that, once, I was a flamenco dancer

in this big city where many effects are

possible

especially with money, e.g.

dance fees which made a dancer

and guitarist hood their eyes at my

version of braceo: the bastardization

of flowers, the opposite of grace—

(how many ways may an artist suffer?)

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Deep thanks as well to John Bloomberg-Rissman for his deep friendship, which is why I dedicated this poem to him. (His editing suggestions were also very helpful!)

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"Big City Cante Intermedio" is one of the poems in a developing manuscript entitled URBAN.

Thank you, Universe.