This book is a co-publication with the Italian art book publisher, Charta.  After Libellum’s edition of March 18, 2003, began to attract attention, Charta, recognizing the force of Lally’s poem, asked if there could be a new collaborative edition, which would include several drawings by Alex Katz.  Here it is: the Charta/Libellum edition of March 18, 2003, which includes a previously unpublished introduction to Lally’s poem by Vincent Katz.

March 18, 2003 — the day before the United States invaded Iraq, beginning a wasteful and destructive process that continues until today — was also the day of an anti-war poetry reading at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York, for which Michael Lally wrote the poem in this book.  In a series of considered questions, the poem uses vernacular and emotion to turn the tables on those who cause death and suffering.  The poem is an indictment of the hypocrisy that runs through current American policies and a way of life that has gone badly astray.  Lally achieves this tour-de-force in his inimitable style, which is by turns wry, sardonic, heartbreaking, and ultimately sees a way out.  Alex Katz's drawings provide an unexpected counterpart to Lally's words; a shared history that includes the New York Schools of painting and poetry enables this stunning interaction.  "...a powerful pouring forth of militant outrage against America's new policy of pre-emptive strike." — Jim Feast, Evergreen Review.  "Lally is riffing at the psychological anti-center of contemporary American consciousness..." — Larry Sawyer, Rain Taxi. 

Contact: libellum@mac.com

64 pages / 6 illustrations
Available through D.A.P.