The
Poet in the Park
is a tribute to Wallace Stevens’ memory and to his singular accomplishment in poetry. It offers an affectionate human connection with a man deprived of some of life’s most basic pleasures – living where you want, with whom you want, and having the emotional freedom to express yourself and evade the fetters of our restrictive society. The book draws on the author’s work as both a photographer and poet, combining a series of photos of the natural world (many taken in Hartford CT, including Elizabeth Park) with poems designed to be like musical variations, where a composer develops features from another composer, both to honor the original and simultaneously make something new. Thus, while the poems here never attempt to fully replicate Stevens’ poetry, they draw on the manner, vocabulary, and poetic devices found throughout his work. A set of endnotes guides the reader in connecting references in the poems to specific details of Stevens’ life and work.