"The Boke of Maneres" is an ekphrastic series based on the paintings of Austin artist Marc Silva (www.marcsilva.com). My idea was to riff off of both Marc's techniques (oil on wood, hence some of the punning in "Silva" - which itself is Latin for wood or forest) and his politics. The poems are not just a meditation on the original works, but a dialogue around them, spinning off into directions that are hopefully as provocative as their eerie sources.