DEAD BIRDS or AVIAN BLUES

Poetry. Drama. Illustrated by Juliane Pieper. "With equally wonderful, vivid and fanciful illustrations by Juliane Pieper to match his wildly mythical texts, much in the vein of the Brothers Grimm, Maurice Sendak and Dr. Seuss, though a bit scarier and meant more for 'grownups,' Howard Pflanzer's new collection of poems and plays has created a world which to some may seem simple on the surface but which actually takes us through the souls of man and beast alike. The short interlocking plays of the book's first ½, using birds and beasts as metaphors, are surreal realities about survival, co-existence and in many cases inevitable collision and collapse. They, like the poems that follow, deal as equally with ecology as they do with the interdependence of species, are here examined through love and appetite, each play a little rhyming fable. The poems, divided into 2 sections, further examine Pflanzer's fascination with birds and suddenly become the equivalence of digital photos (snapshots) displaying up to the moment descriptions of what is happening NOW in places as far-reaching as Tompkins Square Park, Bourbon Street and Baghdad. Pflanzer's is a journey that will keep you riveted, always stirring up your cravings for more"—Steve Dalachinsky.