A Book of Common Flowers

A collection of forty common flowers comprising of watercolor image, botanical history, photo and a prose poem. The watercolor is a soft rendering of the flower, followed by a brief botanical history and possible place in mythology, literature and sometimes pop culture. References range from Longfellow, Shakespeare to more contemporary sources diverse as Tiny Tim, Debbie Reynolds and Helen Keller among others. The photo captures intricate beauty of the flower, often resembling a painting. The section closes with an irreverent, sometimes erotic or humorous, prose poem commentary on the flower. This is the author’s first venture into poetry, his previous work consisting of three novels and a book of short stories. He describes this new genre for him as finger painting with words, a form of stream-of-consciousness, without the restrictions and structure of traditional poetry.