Thirty Herald Paumanok Poetry-Photo Book

by Maxwell Corydon Wheat Jr.
 

            Thirty people attended the preview reading of Kathy Donnelly’s monumental book of poetry and photography, Paumanok: Poems and Pictures of Long Island, Sat., May 23, sponsored  by the Locust Valley Library Poetry Society at the Locust Valley Public Library. Although copies hadn’t arrived from the printer’s in Bulgaria, it was a charged celebratory gala.
            Aboout 20 poets of the 101 in the book read their poems, Ms. Donnelly, Editor, at the podium flipping pages in a looseleaf to find their work for them.  All the time, with the accompaniment of light meditative recorded music, many of the 330 photographs by 80 photographers were flashed on a screen, including amazing close-ups like a Ruddy Turnstone, an Osprey on its nest, the ocean surf spray blown back seaward.   In words, music and photographs the afternoon was a lyric reflection of Long Island—it was a teaser. It made people eager for the books to arrive
              “It is an anthology of “Poetography,” says Ms. Donnelly, claiming creative credit for that word, meaning “a collection of poems and photographs, married to each other.” She added that “The artists live on (or are from) Long Island and the body of work represents life on this island of ours.  The book is a walk through the seasons, each day of the year, and an opportunity for you to find a new way of expression, if you haven't found your voice already.”   
            “Paumanok is a beautfiful book, whether judged by its visual appearance of its words—the superb quality of the images, the sound of the poems. This anthol­ogy, which celebrates the cycle of the seasons, documents an aspect of Long Island far removed from the intensity of expressways, frenetic pace of contem­porary life. Paumanok! The name evokes a magic. We must each find our own Paumanok, discover our secret place. Entering the pages of this book, we are transported there.
—Richard Bronson, author of Search for Oz
            “What is unusual about this charming anthology is how well the poems and poets—some well-known, others not—all fit together, as if the Long Island they celebrate so beautifully has a sensibility they all share, even though some of the poets write about everyday life and some about sea and sky. The more than 300 photographs that accompany the poems make a perfect embellishment. The book demonstrates how Long Island is, and has been, a nest of singing birds.”
—Harvey Shapiro, author of The Sights Along the Harbor: New and Collected Poems
 

      The book is published by Stanley Barkan’s

       Cross-Cultural Communications of Merrick.