A Harp from the Opulent Cactus: The Avant-Garde Song (Lyrics for Musical Theater‪)‬

Cover Image: The painting "Proof of Beauty" by Fernando Campos (acrylic an oil on canvas, 3 x 4 feet) // Songwriter; lyricist; creative writing; personal expression; literary inquiry; improvisation; young artist; Mexican-American; Chicano; Northern Californian; experimental writing; philosophy of art; philosophy of mind; imagination; reality; merit; interpersonal; subjective; objective; perception; epistemology; ethics; appearance; visual; unique language; vernacular; self-publishing; opinion; artistic conduit; meaning; significance; signifier; truth; reality; multidimensional; contemporary aesthetics; contemplative; free-spirited; entertainment; thought experiment; musing; delight; intellectual; poetic; semiotics; abstract art; playful; innovative; whimsical; lighthearted; beauty; allure; intrigue; inspiration; metaphysics; sensory; personhood // Fernando Campos is the Acquisitions Coordinator for the University of Virginia Press. As an undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, he served as an associate editor for Berkeley Fiction Review, Berkeley Poetry Review, and The Comparative Literature Undergraduate Journal at UC Berkeley (CLUJ). He also served as a Senior Advisor for CLUJ. He completed a senior thesis on ekphrastic poetry and graduated with honors in the UC Berkeley English Department.