Sign Language

"The assortment of photos and drawings ... illuminated the text and gave deeper meaning. Rarely have I seen a collection of poetry that created such a cohesive end product." --Randy-Lynne Wach, San Francisco Book Review "Sign Language is the work of a singularly interesting and engaged mind: No one sees the world as John S. Paul sees it. The distinctiveness of his vision is viscerally evident in his words and his images, where beauty and grittiness, anxiety and repose, all mix and merge to create something altogether new. This honest, stunning book will make you see the world differently, too." --Rosie Schaap, author of Drinking With Men "Paul has managed a high wire act, both exploring and documenting his existence with grace and poetry, and, like a good tightrope walker, has done it without a net." - Bradley Rubenstein, Culture Catch "The mark of creation is its flow. I see in the work of John Paul the perception that is this flow. To flying over the work with the aplomb of such perception -- which is what creation is all about!" --Knox Martin, artist "it is a vivid portrayal of a trade and city, of the distance between working and careering, and the eternal desire to finish painting before sunset." --Steve Powers, artist "John Paul answers the question Is there life on Mars? by serving us Breakfast on Mars, only Mars turns out to be someplace very down-to-earth. Thankfully we are invited to share his perceptions: "we spy the weather / with foxy eyes." We are whoever he is, high above the storied metropolis, which he sees as painter, photographer, and poet." --Victor Katz, author of The Complete Elegies Of Sextus Propertius; editor of VANITAS