Connotations

"This bold new collection by acclaimed Mohawk writer Maurice Kenny explores the interrelationship of life and art. The first section, "Lines on Canvas," looks at the work of famous artists, many of whom were homosexual, as reflections of their personal lives. Their art reveals the bitterness and agony of having to live secret lives, but it also reveals joy and beauty. The final poem in this section, a brilliant imagining of a conversation between the poet, the painter Camille Pissarro, and the island boy in a sketch by Pissarro, brings the flavor of the Caribbean islands vividly to life in an…