BWW Exclusive Day 1: Preview of Margery & Sheldon Harnick's OUTDOOR MUSEUM- Puddles

The Outdoor Museum (not your usual images of New York) is a book of photographs and verse created as a tribute to the iconic city of New York. Presenting it as its own exhibit, the book includes more than 100 stunning images, 11 sage and witty poems (read by Sheldon Harnick on an accompanying CD), and a reverential foreword by renowned director, Mike Nichols.

BroadwayWorld brings you a preview of one of the pieces from the book below, entitled 'Puddles.'

As museum enthusiasts, the Harnicks began to construct their own virtual museum while regularly walking the city streets. Looking past the landmarks and cultural icons, they came upon more fascinating and less regarded urban marvels—puddle reflections, subway tiles, sleeping swans, fireworks, public sculpture, store mannequins, and so much more that can be enjoyed without a ticket or a reservation. Margery snapped pictures and Sheldon scribbled verses on a pad. Together, this influential couple brought their abundant talents to The Outdoor Museum as homage to New York. The Outdoor Museum is a singular trophy by two New Yorkers who have contributed to and been deeply touched by the city’s magic.

Margery Gray Harnick and her husband Sheldon Harnick have been fixtures in the New York theater scene for decades—she as an actress-singer-dancer, he as a lyricist for such smash-hit musicals like Fiddler on the Roof. More recently, the couple have turned their eye on the less-documented corners of their beloved metropolis. The result is The Outdoor Museum: Not Your Usual Images of New York (Beaufort Books, $29.95; ISBN 978-0-8253-0675-4), which brings together Margery’s artist’s-eye-view of the city and Sheldon’s knack for narrative verse to produce a uniquely sublime souvenir. To purchase the book, click here.

PUDDLES

Manhattan puddles, I suspect, are vain.
If so, then this must be the reason why:
Manhattan puddles know that they reflect
Manhattan building, trees and sky.

But other puddles, too, may be as proud,
Content to dwell in town and countryside.
Reflecting the locales that gave them birth,
They glow with chauvinistic pride.

I wonder if beneath their calm facades,
They tremble when they contemplate their fate.
They know reflected glory’s a mirage
And will, in time, evaporate. 

Aware that their existence may be brief,
They take the onward rush of time to heart
And chose to spend their dwindling span of days
Becoming works of art.