Book description
A collaboration born of a shared love of music, photography, poetry,
and Indiana, this book celebrates the history, literature, and art
that informs the present and shapes our identity. Richard Fields's
black and white and sepia photos are evocative imaginings of Norbert
Krapf's poems, visual metaphors that extend and deepen their vision.
Krapf's poems pay tribute to poets from Homer and Virgil to Walt
Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Wendell Berry, and to singer-songwriters
such as Woody Guthrie and John Lennon. They also explore the poet's
German heritage, question ethnic prejudice and social conflict, and
praise the natural world. The book includes a cycle of 15 poems about
Bob Dylan; a public poem written in response to 9/11, "Prayer to
Walt Whitman at Ground Zero"; "Back Home," a poem
reproduced in a stained glass panel at the Indianapolis airport; and
ruminations on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall,
"Questions on a Wall."
"Songs in Sepia and Black and White is about the influences
that make us; in these 101 poems Norbert Krapf explores the richness
of his ancestry, from the memory of his parents to his abiding,
formative love for Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Bob Dylan and other
figures. The lyrics are elegant and spare, meditative and melodic,
reminding us of the ancient intertwinement of poetry and song. A book
to treasure-and a book that confirms Krapf's status as one of
America's finest living poets." -Benjamin Hedin, editor of Studio
A: The Bob Dylan Reader
Norbert Krapf, Indiana Poet Laureate (2008-2010), is Emeritus
Professor of English at Long Island University. He is author (with
Darryl D. Jones) of Invisible Presence (IUP, 2006) and author (with
David Pierini) of Bloodroot (IUP, 2008).
Richard Fields was Chief Photographer for the Indiana Department of
Natural Resources and Photo Editor for Outdoor Indiana Magazine from
1985 to 2008, and most recently, a photographer at DePauw University.
He is author (with Hank Hoffman) of Indiana from the Air (IUP, 1996)
and a photographic contributor to The Natural Heritage of Indiana
(IUP, 1997).
