by Allen Cohen (Author), Ann Cohen (Artist)
The poems in the Book of Hats were written while the author was working at the Shlock Shop on Grant Avenue in the North Beach district of San Francisco....Old Indian baskets, whales' teeth, antique dentist tools, sock monkey dolls, political and labor buttons from the thirties, old beer cans, Eskimo knitting tools and hundreds of other old relics are clogged into the many glass cabinets and cases that line the walls and floor space. Hats are everywhere - stacked on shelves, swinging on dummies' heads from the rafters and hanging on nails from the walls....These poems are transcriptions of his interactions with people who came into the dark shadows of the Shlock Shop and left some part of their being there. The poems reveal the humor and poignancy of the human person that we so often forget to notice in the techno-electro speed of contemporary life.