In 1990, I was in group exhibits at the Willis Gallery and the Michigan Gallery. All of these master copies were done on Bristol paper except for Number 8. This was done on thin paper. Number 6 is on scratchboard, with the black scratched off with a sharp instrument to reveal the white beneath.
In April, I did two issues for the POETIC EXPRESS Fifth Anniversary. In Number 4 there are two poems from 1989. Number 5's Special Edition Number 9 has three drawings taped in place and two poems. As an incitement to get more mail, I asked readers to "tell me your dreams."
Numbers 9 and 10, done in New York City, include two versions of a poem called Everybody's my Hero and a comic strip called NEW YORK WILDLIFE.
In Number 11, I finish the SURREAL THEATRE series: the love life of a bomb. The next issue starts a "political" story in the comics, as we visit the house of "resentives and the house of mean ways."
The fourth Emotional Digest Issue in Number 15 explores sentimentality, grief and nostalgia.
The dedications this year include issue Number 5's Dream's Triumph from 1987, for Ted Joans, a great African American poet. In issue Number 11, I wrote Returns for Bird, the great Charlie Parker. The 4th annual Dedications Issue has Blues Fire for Dizzy Gillespie, Mr. Parker's great partner in the forging of be bop. I met Dizzy Gillespie briefly once at a show in Detroit's Renaissance Center and said hello. My poem Rag of Blue Ash is for Joseph Cornell, the great Surrealist creator of "shadow box" assemblages. The poem Wild Hope is "for the hopeless."
This year's Personal Favorites: Number 10's undone by ending's beginnings and Number 11's the damndest thing.
I also love the SURREAL THEATRE comic strips in Numbers 1, 11, 14 and 15.
There's other good stuff in here too. My written poetry seems to be hitting its stride in this volume. Instead of just good lines and good sections, I keep reaching toward good poems, and better. In order to go somewhere new: experiments and "reachings" are needed.