This eclectic selection of shorter poems spans twenty-one years of Garrett Buhl Robinson's career. For the selection, the poet created simple graphic designs that provide visual cues into the subject, content and tone of the poems. In some cases, the audience will find a one to one correspondence between the figures and the lyrics. In other cases, there is more abstract ambiguity and expressive openness to provide diverse dynamics for speculative possibilities.
For artistic effect, the images and text become compliments. Each page sets the stage like the scenery for theater. The settings propel the text forward like the scaling steps of a melody to fill the auditory space with orchestrated arrangements. They distinguish and bedazzle like the costumes of elegant dancers. Alternately, the lines of text stitch together patches of images like the motley jig of a jester or the quiet warmth of a quilt. Various displays - figurative or abstract - ignite associative potential to illuminate new perspectives similar to how a theater director experiments with unexpected settings and characterizations to alter or augment expressive potential and re-examine relevance through historic or cultural context.
For literature, the use of visual cues and keys are not new. The human mind has a more direct engagement with figurative images than with typed or scripted symbols and signifiers. Through the primary sense of vision, the world appears in images. Comparatively, language is a system of associative terms arranged by rules of syntax instead of the causal laws of physical nature. In the past, scribes and bookmakers would use flourishes and vignettes to evoke a sense of life or substance upon the page. The winding vines and blossoming flowers may seem incidental ornaments, but they are accents that evoke a sense of the literary content growing into the fruition of understanding in the reader's mind. Alternately, the placement of a cornice on the page can substantiate a text so that it appears a solid structure in the architecture of ideas.
Poetry is a crucial cultural development of the human species. Poetic traditions are found in every culture. Poetry is an essential tool for preserving social values, mores and folklore while providing paths for broadening intrigue. The tropes, techniques and forms twine continuous lines extending deep into our prehistoric past. Yet, to many people, a poem upon a page appears to be a locked door. They feel they lack the keys to release the jams and unlatch the bolts to explore the deepening passages and grandiose corridors within the expressions. This collection of 30 succinct poems provides vivid and musical access into the endless potential of ingenuity to illustrate that poetry is anything we can imagine.
