THE GOLDEN FROGS OF PANAMA

Item Details

New York, Harlan & Weaver, 2009, three broadsides loosely inserted into custom cloth chemises, then inserted into a custom cloth slipcase

One of 20 copies, Fine

 

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The Golden Frogs of Panama provides an intimate view of Strands working process. The evolution of his poem is mapped out in cursive long hand, punctuated by several drawings of wide-eyed frogs; Strands erasures, revisions and additions are evident. Writing echoes the printmaking process: each medium produces drafts, or proofs, and thus a physical history of its progress. Strand exploits this concept by laying out his drafts for The Golden Frogs on one page, the usually unseen history of his works development exposed and further redefined as image. His handwriting is the painters gesture, the lines of a mind in active thought - abstract and calligraphic, but ultimately readable. As Jorie Graham says in a related catalogue essay, "What is more capable of representing reality - a drawn image or a word?"

The Golden Frogs of Panama was printed from a direct gravure plate in black ink on Hahnemühle bright white paper in an edition of 20. A small edition of prints hand colored by the artist were also available. It is a bleed print. The plate was made by Renaissance Press, New Hampshire.

The broadsides are about 36 x 48 inches, with Mark Strand's holograph manuscript of the poem covering the entire canvas, the text interspersed with watercolor illustrations of frogs. The canvas/manuscript traces the development of the poem, The Golden Frogs of Panama. Strand began using this medium after he suffered a back injury and found that writing in a standing position was easier for him. The poem was inspired by an article he read in The New Yorker describing their extinction.

Mark Strand ( b.April 11, 1934 in Summerside, Prince Edward Island - d. November 29, 2014,New York) was a American man of letters. Strand who would go on to win many awards in his career including the Pulitzer Prize thought highly enough of this his first collection to include ten of these poems in his 1980 Selected Poems. 

The text:

Mark Strand, The Golden Frogs of Panama, 2009
The dying sun gives way to the sightless moon,
A dusting of dead leaves darkens the lawn,
The Golden Frogs of Panama are gone.
"Never too soon," says the clean-shaven man
Slouched in the rear of a black limousine;
"Never too soon," he repeats, looking down
At his manicured nails, "so what if the green
Is gone from Green Hill, if the north is flooded with rain
And the southern jungles are dry as bone,
Its time to move on."
The Golden Frogs of Panama are gone.
And the polar bear and whooping crane,
And soon the panda and gorilla will go down,
One by one, never to be seen again,
Not by us, not by anyone.

 

 

New York: Harlan & Weaver, 2009; 84.5 x 60 cm (33.25 x 23.5 in), three broadsides loosely inserted into custom cloth chemises, then inserted into a custom cloth slipcase. Book # 142656

 

View and purchase this title on our website here.