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Maurice Greenia, Jr. Collections
Poetic Express Volume 02

In 1987, I was still making art and working at the store.  I was "doing everything but selling and management."  The second volume marks the beginning of my notorious "comic strip" SURREAL THEATRE.  The master copies are on thin paper with Numbers 4 and 14 on cardboard.

Once every month I include my comic strip SURREAL THEATRE.  In it, the denizens of Poptown (and surrounding areas) go through their paces. The initial stories deal with the doings of Mr. Flirko, who likes to sing strange songs in bars and is subject to fits of delirium.  It's an interesting start to this strip and includes collage experiments.

In May, in Number 5, I begin an annual tradition of including poems dedicated to my heroes and heroines.  Here, I write a poem for writer and poet Octavio Paz who often talked of love, of India and of the Latin world. There's another for photographer Lee Miller, known for her war photography and ties to Surrealism.  There are also poems for artist Max Ernst and for Louis Armstrong and Greta Garbo.

In June, in Number 6, I start another long running annual series called Emotional Digest, which explores the human condition through emotions.

In Number 10, I first display my P.O. Box address.  It had a long run but as of 2004, it is closed and abandoned.  I also mention my "alter egos" in this issue, The Movement toward Peace, Love & Imagination and the mysterious Bureau of Poetic Research.

Personal Favorites: Number 1 was created at one of "my haunts" Detroit's Main Library, especially the poem which starts I was dreaming...  In Number 11, the poem voices of darkness casts its haunted spell well.  Also, the "cowboy poems" in Number 12 with ghost town dedicated to Detroit, of course.  Poet Lariat is "for Trane and Dolphy."

SURREAL THEATRE favorites include Numbers 4, 5 and 14.

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