Imaginary Museum: Poems on Art

Joseph Stanton’s poems perform for us several sequences of works of art, displaying paintings, movies, noh plays, and a variety of tales. Each piece is a genuine discovery, redreaming the elements of art that have surprised him and enlarged his understandings.

Stanton’s poems sing for us the essential songs of paintings by such masters as Vermeer, Pissarro, Magritte, Bruegel, and Hopper; of such movies as The Third Man, The Birds, and Blade Runner; and of such noh plays as Matsukaze, Kagekiyo, and Dojoji. Other series of poems even attempt to shed light on some of Chris Van Allsburg’s inscrutable Mysteries of Harris Burdick.

Stanton’s “museum” confirms that our experiences with the great works of our various cultural traditions are deserving of our passionate attention.