First edition, one of 200 hardbound trade copies. Table of contents, preface, epilogue, "gratitude and annotation." Biographical sketch of the author, with photograph, follows text. A collection of poetry. 197, 5 pages. quarter cloth, paper-covered boards, paper spine label, acetate dust jacket. 8vo..

The title of this book comes from a hotel in the town of Les Eyzies in the French Dordgne, where the greatest concentration of Upper Paleolithic decorated shelters and caves are found. In 1868, in the Les Ayzies rock shelter called "Abri de Cro-Magnon" ("Cro-Magnon" meaning "big hole" in the local patois), the first skeletons of our direct ancestors were discovered. The shelter, now scoured of its holdings, can still be visited; it is part of the rockwall that undulates as the spinal backdrop of Les Eylzies; one section of the wall serves as the back wall of Hotel Cro-Magnon. The hotel can thus be thought of as the social outgrowth of our discovery of who we are.The poetics of Hotel Cro-Magnon are based on the belief that there is an archetypal poem, and that its most ancient design is probably the labyrinth.The first words of a poem, from this viewpoint, propose and nose toward a confrontation with what the writer is only partially aware of, or may not be prepared to address until it emerges, flushed forth by meanders and dead-ends. Poetry twists toward the unknown and seeks to realize something beyond the poet's initial awareness. What it seeks to know might be described as the unlimited interiority of its initial impetus.

Gathers post-surrealist poetry by French, Peruvian, Caribbean, and Czech authors

Product Description: poetry by ex-pat Frenchman living in L. A.; Postface by Robert Kelly

Poems explore the author's experiences and a variety of themes including birth, death, and jazz

The surrealist poetry of the noted Martinican author, Aime Cesaire, portrays Africa's fight for freedom from colonialism (view table of contents)

Product Description: Includes notes by Eshleman on his approach to paleolithic art.

Product Description: Excerpt from "The Inn of the Empty Egg":The soul is fidelity / hollowed with infidelity to itself, / the Inn of the Empty Egg. An ancient aurochs, / Hieronymus Bosch looks back upon his shell, the Inn / of his undelivered body, so warm to those who still / remember covers, the candles under covers, / the cool warmth of finding the cardinal points of / one's anatomy in the dark, late night, at 6 years old...read more

Product Description: According to the introduction, this book was inspired by cave art Eshleman encountered in France, and believed to be misunderstood by everyone else who had ever written about it. For his predecessors, these paintings were simply a reflection of the daytime activities of Cro-Magnon man...read more

Product Description: softcover poetry book