American Dreams

In a form that is a hybrid of flash autobiography and prose poetry, former Indiana Poet Laureate Norbert Krapf revisits the past and reflects on its relationship with the present. American Dreams: Reveries and Revisitations contains seven cycles, all but one of which has ten sections, each introduced with a photograph. The author meditates on family history, scenes from his ancestral past, and childhood memories. Featuring quirky perspectives and spoken in various voices, some ironic, Krapf's reveries lift the thin veil between dream and nightmare set in Europe and America. In the last section, the voice of Minnesota minstrel Bob Dylan sometimes merges with that of the poet, and the fellow Midwesterners, who found their voices in New York, cross boundaries to explore and celebrate the common origin of poetry and song.