The US Review of Books (USRB) highly praised “Miss Manhattan” by Biman Roy

“Miss Manhattan” by Biman Roy is commended by Jonah Meyer of the US Review of Books, who underscores that “…like the painting of an accomplished Expressionist, the poet’s words, images, vignettes, and nuanced creative expression are employed in service to a literary celebration of the great northeastern American city.”

Author Biman Roy is a psychiatrist by profession and works as a consultant at a New York hospital. He lives in Ridgewood, New Jersey. He has been writing poetry for the past three decades and has been widely published.

His work has received nominations for the Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. Biman Roy is the author of one chapbook of prose poems, Of Moon and Washing Machine, and two other poetry chapbooks, Dinosaur Hour and Navigating the Quartz Forest.

Beginning with an epitaph from Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” “Miss Manhattan” serves as a love letter to New York City in all its glorious splendor and gritty grime. The poet dedicates this book to fellow New Yorkers, and throughout the range of poetic offerings, a heady and celebratory undercurrent runs throughout, tying the forty-six poems together, all grounded in the Big Apple.

Here’s an excerpt from the US Review of Books that highlights:

“The true draw of these poetic selections, elements sure to please any reader appreciative of rich imagery and narrative, lies in the casual observations of NYC people, places, and happenings. In the poem “Only Here,” for example, Roy writes: “When I walk in the shade of a side street, / a pizza deliveryman bicycles past my dreaming self / with a red and blue cape, and a young woman / wearing a blooming magnolia blouse bends over / through her second-floor window and reads / from War and Peace loudly to the crowd below.” Later, in “Picasso at the Park,” the author writes of the “wind over the Hudson,” describing the “soft, moist grass of Central Park.” A showing of Picasso’s paintings features women, wandering animals, violin and guitar, all “signs of life on earth.”

Sappho can be found in these eclectic poems, as can poet Marianne Moore, Mozart, Monet, Shakespeare, Chopin, Socrates, and Robert DeNiro. Marchers to Stonewall, “through a field of petunias” populate these poems, as do tattoo parlor clientele, such as in the poem “One Tattoo at a Time,” where onlookers gaze, “curious, playful.” This poetry itself is curious and playful, intelligently written, and bears a pleasurable aesthetic. These poems are approachable, colorful, and full of city-life fascinations.”