Patricia Faith Polak is an adventurous world traveler whose experiences have led her to appreciate the island she calls home, and now to poetically reflect on the beauty and cultural diversity of Manhattan. Polak's varied verse not only explores the past as hot cocoa is sipped at Schraff's and a nickel's worth of macaroni and cheese is devoured at the Automat, but also reflects on present day as an indigo sky illuminates the city, the sun glows on the tree-shaded paving cobbles outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a park near the East River welcomes nannies, a grassy café in Greenwich Village lures guests, a chic gallery on the Lower East Side hosts an opening, and as a redhead looks expectantly toward a paper-capped soda jerk in an Edward Hopper painting. Manhattan Melody shares fifty contemporary reflections from an award-winning poet that share a fresh perspective on the beauty and diversity that surrounds a New York island.