8.6 /10 1 Votes
Author Language English Publication date 2006 Originally published 2006 Genre Poetry slam OCLC 9781893972254 | 4.3/5 Illustrator Lauren Darby Publisher The Wordsmith Press Pages 26 Page count 26 Country United States of America | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Secret Dream-lives of Engineers (2006) is a collection of poetry written by Eric Darby. The book's poems address many common themes such as life and destruction but describe them using technological and engineering terms.
Contents
The images used in the book design are taken from the US patent 1,883,058 "Machine for Making Pulp Articles," granted on October 18, 1932 to Eric's great-grandfather, a millworker who, without any formal engineering training, invented and built a machine that changed the way paper plates were made.
Book Contents
The book includes 8 poems.
- "The Secret Dream-lives of Engineers
- "Von Dutch"
- "My Father's Hands"
- "Alloy"
- "Scratch and Dent Dreams"
- "The Temptation of Friends"
- "What Would Jesus Drive?"
- "Jimmy 7"
Audio edition
The audio edition comes bundled with the book. The recordings vary, with some featuring accompanying background music. The album was engineered at the Hi-n-Dry studio. "Alloy" and "Scratch and Dent Dreams" were recorded from Darby's performance at the 2005 National Poetry Slam in Albuquerque, NM, in which Eric Darby was a finalist. All tracks were mixed and mastered by Gar Ragland at Riparius Records, NYC.
The following poems can be heard in the album:
- "The Secret Dream-lives of Engineers" - 2:48
- "Alloy (Live)" - 3:33
- "The Chicken Show" - 3:51
- "What Would Jesus Drive?" - 3:15
- "The Temptation of Friends" - 2:46
- "My Father's Hands" - 2:51
- "I Wish the Motor City... (featuring Star St. Germain)" - 6:50
- "Von Dutch" - 3:23
- "Scratch and Dent Dreams (Live)" - 3:29
- "Jimmy 7" - 4:56
Darby, Eric. The Secret Dream-lives of Engineers. Michigan: The Wordsmith Press, 2006.