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Rating: 
Summary: The Essence of Walt Whitman
Review: As we pass through another period in our history where unspeakable wars seem imminent, the great poets of the present and past draw focus, attempting to sound the alarm that might just possibly awaken us. And always chief among those poets who felt the folly and shame of war is Walt Whitman. So it is no wonder that collections of his poems re-surface and hopefully nourish a generation of young people who face the possibility of following the lifted sword.Whitman's voice, in this collection from the Calamus poems, is turned toward a more personal declaration of intimacy between men rather than fist-shaking against war. In a beautifully designed and curated format, David Groff has selected poems that are enhanced by Richard Berman's selection of photographic images to allow the reader to listen more carefully to the thoughts of the master. Here we are not ask to weep as with "The Wound Dresser": here we celebrate the comradery and love between the living. The sensitive photographs are the contributions of John Dugdale, Mark Beard, Robert Flynt, Bill Jacobson, Russell Maynor, Frank Yamrus and Steve Morrison, and while none of these images is "illustrational", each embellishes the poetry in a way one believes Walt Whitman would mightily approve. A beautiful volume this.
Rating:
Summary: A CELEBRATION OF LIFE
Review: Not only is this a book of beautiful photographs beautifully reproduced, it also has many of Walt Whitman's wonderful Calamus poems from his classic "Leaves of Grass." The seven male, contemporary photographers represented in the book are all dealing in their images with the themes set forth in Whitman's poetry: loss, love of life and nature and mankind, death, love of man for man, loneliness, companionship, etc.: a man bathing in a tin tub in a John Dugdale cyanotype; two men embracing underwater in a mysterious Robert Flynt image; a man, stripped to the waist, standing alone staring at the camera, in what seems an old, empty house in the hand-colored photograph by Mark Beard; Russell Maynor's color Poloroid of a young, male nude---all of the 76 fascinating photographs in this small, perfectly put together volume deserve to be seen, seen again and shared. And then, of course, there are always Whitman's magnificent words: "...Doubtless I could not have perceived the universe, or written one of my poems, if I had not freely given myself to comrades, to love." VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Rating:
Summary: A CELEBRATION OF LIFE
Review: Not only is this a book of beautiful photographs beautifully reproduced, it also has many of Walt Whitman's wonderful Calamus poems from his classic "Leaves of Grass." The seven male, contemporary photographers represented in the book are all dealing in their images with the themes set forth in Whitman's poetry: loss, love of life and nature and mankind, death, love of man for man, loneliness, companionship, etc.: a man bathing in a tin tub in a John Dugdale cyanotype; two men embracing underwater in a mysterious Robert Flynt image; a man, stripped to the waist, standing alone staring at the camera, in what seems an old, empty house in the hand-colored photograph by Mark Beard; Russell Maynor's color Poloroid of a young, male nude---all of the 76 fascinating photographs in this small, perfectly put together volume deserve to be seen, seen again and shared. And then, of course, there are always Whitman's magnificent words: "...Doubtless I could not have perceived the universe, or written one of my poems, if I had not freely given myself to comrades, to love." VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
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