In "stories, poems, song lyrics & remembrances," the sentimental, magnanimous, ebullient and sorrowful Elmslie (Nite Soil) offers a winning homage to his many longstanding intimates, living and dead, in the New York School. Frank O'Hara, Joe Brainard, John Latouche, Kenneth Koch and John Ashbery play leading and cameo roles. Under Elmslie's steady-handed humor and joie de vivre, the embarrassing, the banal, the horrific and the frivolous become momentarily beautiful, new and noteworthy: "Scent of... of...// empty elevator cages./ Face powder. Ladies./ If their slip is showing,/ it's snowing/ hyacinths, white hyacinths." His "26 I Remembers of Frank O'Hara" is especially poignant and enjoyable. (July)
