Poetry in celebration of homoerotic love from the legendary musician and Indoor Life frontman

Homoerotic poetry and art appear throughout the world’s civilizations for millennia. The Archaeology of Eros, the first collection of poems from cult music figure Jorge Socarras, taps into that continuum through the collaboration of acclaimed artist Mel Odom. Socarras’ intimate love poems and Odom’s evocative drawings are beautifully juxtaposed in this elegantly designed book. Straddling the sensual and the archetypal, the contemporary and the classical, poetry and art join forces in exploring the mystery and wonder of Eros, affirming that same-sex desire has lived before even as it flourishes now.

Born to Cuban parents in New York City, Jorge Socarras (born 1952) is known for his 1970s collaboration with pioneering synthesizer musician Patrick Cowley as the duo Catholic, as singer-frontman of the 1980s avant-rock group Indoor Life and as half of the ongoing musical duo Fanatico X. He was also cofounder of the Silence=Death Collective, the AIDS activist group that in 1987 created the eponymous poster design and slogan.

The award-winning art of Mel Odom (born 1950) has graced numerous book covers and magazines since the 1970s, has been the subject of two books, and has been exhibited in galleries and art institutions, including in collaboration with gay literary icon Edmund White.