Inspired and informed by the music and urban landscape of New York City, Tongue & Groove employs jazzy and descriptive language in a sweep of city-life experiences and memories. A passionate rendering of incidents in spaces that include the subway, a school for the handicapped, and The Museum of Modern Art, Stephen Cramer employs richly sensual language and a wide range of imagery. Alluring portrayals of butterfly migrations, graffiti, and city buses complement this collection's connection to the everyday hoots, shouts, and yammer of the streets.
--or you can open
your mouth & stick out
your tongue,
take that fugitive impulse
from the artist's hand
straight into your very gut
& maybe find out along the way
if the lime-green
of that inverted roof
& the burnt almond
of the filling station's
roadside grasses
live up to their names.
--from "Taste"