The Imaginary Museum

Peter Baltensperger is the editor and publisher of Moonstone Press and
the author of Arcana.

In the true tradition of the surrealists, Stan Rogal’s voice
captivates with calculated understatement, with the said as much as the
unsaid, and with startling imagery. Fragmented, often staccato syntax
combined with a piling up of images (one following the other, following
the other) create a framework of apparent simplicity that carries the
complexity of his thoughts and ideas from poem to poem, from one
beginning to the next, and to the inevitably surprising conclusions.
“I become delicate,” the poet writes. “Divine. A lace glove.”

The Imaginary Museum is permeated with allusions to classical
mythology, lines from fairy tales and nursery rhymes, references to
Shakespearean characters and storylines, images and expressions from the
great surrealist works of art and literature. At the same time, the
poems are punctuated by oddly funky expressions from the contemporary
vernacular, the murky bar scene, the frantic teenage crowd. All these
effects and techniques combine to draw the reader into a world of sudden
leaps, startling discoveries, unexpected juxtapositions—a compelling
journey through a talented and serious poet’s mind.