Peter Payack

It's important to me that formal elements of a work reinforce its content or that the form at least be used imaginatively. In the "artist's bks" part of my library is where such works are most likely to be stored. Peter Payack's "The Edible Anthology of Poetry" is a prime case in point. Alas, this sample is probably 30 yrs old &, as such, the fortune cookie is long since crushed & turned green. As such, it's a bit hard to see in my scan of it (presented here as the "cover"). The show more "ingredients" list on the back of the label reads as follows:

"1 DRIED ANAXAGORAS
1 BUNCH OF NANCY BALLARD
1 LARGE JANE BARNES
1 GREEN TED CLAUSEN
1/2 CUP DIOGENES
1 TBSP HARRISON FISHER
1 LB ERICA FUNKHAUSER
1 TSP MARK GOLDBERG
1 LAYER OF BARRY LEVINE
6 GRAMS OF KAREN LINDSEY
1 MELTED JEFF MAUZY
1 CAN OF MILDRED NASH
1 STEWED OPAL LOUIS NATIONS
1 AVERAGE F. A. NETTELBECK
1 RAW PAUL J. J. PAYACK
1 WASHED PETER PAYACK
1 THINNED ADULT STRONG
SEASONED WITH L. L. ZEIGER
SPRINKLED WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
BY KEN BROWN & OPAL LOUIS NATIONS"

That's alotof ingredients for fortune cookies! Fortune cookies, like filmstrips, are a neglected medium. I'm enthusiastic about Payack's using it for something other than typical restaurant fare. My particular copy has a fortune in it of a simple line drawing of a freshly hatched chick w/ fragments of its eggshell on either side. A box w/in a box, an image of something newly released - released from its fortune cookie shell. show less

A funny (I hope) pi-ku (3, 1, 4 ... syllables)