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| Wassily Kandinsky Poster for first Phalanx Exhibition, Munich 1901 lithograph Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Johan Thorn Prikker Exhibition of Dutch Art in Krefeld Kaiser Wilhelm Museum 1903 lithograph Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Ferdinand Hodler Poster for Secession Exhibition, Vienna Ver Sacrum (Sacred Spring) 1904 lithograph Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Anonymous Dutch designer Poster for National Exhibition of the Book Stedelyk Museum, Amsterdam 1910 lithograph Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
sweet reader, flanneled and tulled
Reader unmov'd and Reader unshaken, Reader unseduc'd
and unterrified, through the long-loud and the sweet-still
I creep toward you. Toward you, I thistle and I climb.
I crawl, Reader, servile and cervine, through this blank
season, counting – I sleep and I sleep. I sleep,
Reader, toward you, loud as a cloud and deaf, Reader, deaf
as a leaf. Reader: Why don't you turn
pale? and, Why don't you tremble? Jaded, staid
Reader, You – who can read this and not even
flinch. Bare-faced, flint-hearted, recoilless
Reader, dare you – Rare Reader, listen
and be convinced: Soon, Reader,
soon you will leave me, for an italian mistress:
for her dark hair, and her moon-lit
teeth. For her leopardi and her cavalcanti,
for her lips and clavicles; for what you want
to eat, eat, eat. Art-lover, rector, docent!
Do I smile? I, too, once had a brash artless
feeder: his eye set firm on my slackening
sky. He was true! He was thief! In the celestial sense
he provided some, some, some
(much-needed) relief. Reader much-slept with, and Reader I will die
without touching, You, Reader, You: mr. small-
weed, mr. broad-cloth, mr. long-dark-day. And the italian mis-
fortune you will heave me for, for
her dark hair and her moonlit-teeth. You will love her well in-
to three-or-four cities, and then, you will slowly
sink. Reader, I will never forgive you, but not, poor
cock-sure Reader, not, for what you think. O, Reader
Sweet! and Reader Strange! Reader Deaf and Reader
Dear, I understand youyourself may be hard-
pressed to bare this small and un-necessary burden
having only just recently gotten over the clean clean heart-
break of spring. And I, Reader, I am but the daughter
of a tinker. I am not above the use of bucktail spinners,
white grubs, minnow tails. Reader, worms
and sinkers. Thisandthese curtail me
to be brief: Reader, our sex gone
to wildweather. YesReaderYes – that feels much-much
better. (And my new Reader will come to me empty-
handed, with a countenance that roses, lavenders, and cakes.
And my new Reader will be only mildly disappointed.
My new Reader can wait, can wait, can wait.) Light-
minded, snow-blind, nervous, Reader, Reader, troubled, Reader,
what'd ye lack? Importunate, unfortunate, Reader:
You are cold. You are sick. You are silly.
Forgive me, kind Reader, forgive me, I had not intended to step this quickly this far
back. Reader, we had a quiet wedding: he&I, theparson
&theclerk. Would I could, stead-fast, gracilefacile Reader! Last,
good Reader, tarry with me, jessa-mine Reader. Dar-
(jee)ling, bide! Bide, Reader, tired, and stay, stay, stray Reader,
true. R.: I had been secretly hoping this would turn into a love
poem. Disconsolate. Illiterate. Reader,
I have cleared this space for you, for you, for you.
– Olena Kalytiak Davis, from shattered sonnets, love cards and other off and back handed importunities (Bloomsbury, 2003)
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| Franz von Stuck Poster for International Health Exposition, Dresden 1911 lithograph Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Ernst Deutsch Salamander (Shoes) 1912 lithograph Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Peter Behrens German Workers Union Exhibition, Cologne Art in handcrafts, industry. trade and architecture 1914 lithograph Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
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| Edward McKnight Kauffer Exhibition of Modern Art The London Group ca. 1915 lithograph Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Jacob Jongert Apricot Brandy ca. 1920 lithograph Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Julius Gipkens York Gold - Garbáty Neu! ca. 1920 lithograph Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Dagobert Peche Public Exhibition of Fashion Fabrics Wiener Werkstätte 1921 lithograph Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Willy Dzubas Deutschland - Hamburg Chilehaus 1925 lithograph Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Anton Lavinsky Film Poster - Battleship Potemkin 1926 lithograph Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Anonymous Russian designer Vive la Commune Film Poster - The New Babylon 1929 lithograph Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |