PETER SCARBO FRAWLEY

Generally speaking the material of the concrete poem is language: words reduced to their elements of letters (to see) syllables (to hear). The concrete poet is concerned with establishing his linguistic materials in a new relationship to space and/or to time (abandoning the old linear measure). Put another way this means the concrete poet is concerned with making an object to be perceived rather than read. -Mary Ellen Solt

Peter Scarbo Frawley: concrete poet, actor, performer, writer.

Peter Scarbo Frawley has always been a poet. Born and raised in Dorchester, MA, In 1967. Peter worked at Molly Malone Cook’s East End Bookstore in Provincetown. His co-workers were Mary Oliver and John Waters. During that same time period Peter participated in a poetry workshop that was run by Mary Oliver.

In 1969-70, and again in 1970-71, Peter was awarded a Fellowship in Creative Writing at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. After reading Aram Saroyan’s Crickets Poems and hearing the peepers in Wellfleet, he began to see the relationship between nature and poetry and started experimenting with pushing the boundaries of writing to discover alternative forms of poetry.

Peter explores words and meaning, letters and ideas, finding ways to strip them down to the simplest form. He continues to discover endless layers of depth within a single word. At first glance his work can appear childlike and innocent. Peter asks the viewer to pause in the space between understanding and knowing.

Peter’s work is deeply personal, primal and honest. The materials he uses are deliberate. He shows his work in places where anyone can discover it. Working with everyday mediums such as an early Smith-Corona typewriter, Letreset transfer letters, velum, painted wood-block, paint sticks, and chalk on slate, Peter investigates the ideas of repetition and reproduction, exploiting the physicality, the impermanence of the chalk on the board, the natural decay over time of the typed paper. He operates in the high and low ends of life with the intention of touching everyone.

Over time performance began to take precedence in his work, bringing in another dimension. Peter has performed in theater and in film, including Southie and Norman Mailer’s Tough Guys Don’t Dance. He is a founding actor at Wellfleet Harbors Actor’s Theater, and a member of the New Provincetown Players and his concrete poems have shown up on billboards and LED signs in New York, Los Angeles, and New England, including recent chalkboard installments at Mac’s Seafood at the Wellfleet Pier.