Cat Cohen

Road Poems U.S.A. Cat Cohen

A book of observations and images from Cat's many travels across our nation from 1985 to 2007 taking the reader on a sensual, insightful, coast-to-coast journey. He visits places most people wouldn't think of writing about from blue highway small towns in 25 states to unusual nooks and crannies in our more populous urban centers. His refreshingly off-the-beaten-path verse incorporates influences of traditional American poets like Walt Whitman and Robert Frost with nods to novelists Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, and Jack Kerouac. He spins vignettes about people he's encountered with wit compassion, and irony, based on truth, yet stretched just enough to be entertaining. Accompanying this collection of over 120 poems are 90 photographs Cat took en route. Like his verse, they celebrate American culture, capturing a wide variety of people and places from our many regions. He tips a verbal and visual hat to idyllic landscapes, historical buildings, seedy bars, and sacred places of worship in egalitarian fashion without judgment, leaving the reader to fill in the blanks. With these social portraits Cat hopes in his own small way to preserve some of the local color, texture, flavor and personality that has been eroded by the sameness of corporate America.