This is a remarkable book. Joseph’s drawings and Andy’s poems are beautiful on their own and in their own right, but paired they create a compelling resonance. The drawings portray a psychological space, one that appears real and tangible but that follows its own dream-like and surreal laws and ways. Remarkable is how imagery in the poem finds an echo and correlate in the accompanying drawing so that the two build off of each other.
Andy’s poems are beautiful with combinations of words, images and phrases that you just want to read over and over again. Taken together the poems create (at least for me) a vivid meditation on the interplay between our inner and outer worlds. The outer world (including the self), woven, created and experienced much like a dream, is only occasionally attached to and rooted in the physical. The inner world opens up into a rich and meaningful space that also provides a platform from which to observe the outer world. It is laced with dreams, perhaps more real than much of the mindless activity that goes on outside of it. More importantly when the gaze is redirected the inner world is seen to be attached to and rooted in something metaphysical – a wellspring that grounds everything.
Thank you so much to Joseph and Andy. This is a book to treasure.
This is a gorgeous book, in which the interaction between poetry and image is continually pleasing. The poems themselves are spare, rhythmically alive, and emotionally accessible. The art images let us linger inside this conversation that is personal, but not private. A pleasure to hold and to return to, many times over!
Dr. Marilyn Kallet
Knoxville Poet Laureate
Professor Emerita, English,
University of Tennessee
This is a remarkable book. Joseph’s drawings and Andy’s poems are beautiful on their own and in their own right, but paired they create a compelling resonance. The drawings portray a psychological space, one that appears real and tangible but that follows its own dream-like and surreal laws and ways. Remarkable is how imagery in the poem finds an echo and correlate in the accompanying drawing so that the two build off of each other.
Andy’s poems are beautiful with combinations of words, images and phrases that you just want to read over and over again. Taken together the poems create (at least for me) a vivid meditation on the interplay between our inner and outer worlds. The outer world (including the self), woven, created and experienced much like a dream, is only occasionally attached to and rooted in the physical. The inner world opens up into a rich and meaningful space that also provides a platform from which to observe the outer world. It is laced with dreams, perhaps more real than much of the mindless activity that goes on outside of it. More importantly when the gaze is redirected the inner world is seen to be attached to and rooted in something metaphysical – a wellspring that grounds everything.
Thank you so much to Joseph and Andy. This is a book to treasure.
Marina Moevs
This is a gorgeous book, in which the interaction between poetry and image is continually pleasing. The poems themselves are spare, rhythmically alive, and emotionally accessible. The art images let us linger inside this conversation that is personal, but not private. A pleasure to hold and to return to, many times over!
Dr. Marilyn Kallet
Knoxville Poet Laureate
Professor Emerita, English,
University of Tennessee