West-East and Shorter Poems

About the Book

WEST-EAST itself is a narrative poem set in roughly contemporary San Francisco: Perry, a schoolteacher from Chicago, and Pao Ling, a student film-maker from Taiwan, begin an love affair, encouraged by Perry's Russian landlady Sonya, and by Cordelia, a friend of Pao Ling with whom Sonya eventually pairs. The men face jealousy from a gay acquaintance; and the romance might end by the clash of Perry and Pao Ling's respective cultures, with the pressure Pao Ling feels to return to Taiwan and marry.

About the Author

BARRY FRAUMAN is a Chicago gay poet proudly associated with NewTown Writers, of which he has been secretary, public performance chair, and newsletter editor. He has written many short poems, as well as longer verse narratives, including: SONS OF NEW TOWN, about gay male life in the Chicago neighborhood – AKA Lakeview or Boystown – for which NewTown Writers was named; THE POEM OF SYLVAIN, set in medieval Normandy; GAY DON JUAN, about the so-called womanizer of seventeenth-century Spain; and PRIME, about a different gay male generation in New Town.