Virtual Book Tour of "At Night, The Dead" by Lisa Ciccarello Visits Julie Unplugged

The dead are everywhere. Their pungent aroma clogs your mind. Especially at night. Mostly, yes, at night.

We can't escape them. The fresh dead: Edward Kennedy, Michael Jackson, perhaps your grandmother, your nephew. The long dead, Marilyn Monroe, Billy Holliday, the man whose crypt above Marilyn Monroe is being sold, on ebay, for his cash-poor-widow to pay her mortgage.

Nor can a reader escape the pull of Lisa Ciccarello's chap book, "At Night, the Dead." The first poem ushers the reader into a dark chamber where she finds herself oddly delighted to be held, trancelike, inside the sanctuary-womb of the dead.

All of the poems include the words, "At Night, the Dead" (Sometimes with more words as well). It begins to feel like a chant or a benedictory incantation for that particular group of words. Following the title you will find a sparse staccato of words which beg to be intoned aloud.

I found myself reading Ciccarello's words aloud at Starbucks or when I was stopped at red lights or spoken into the emptiness of my living room. I murmured gone... nothing... gone.... nothing... like a slowing metronome, remembering and watching death simultaneously.

I heard myself read and say "I am that girl" and I became that girl, no longer a forty-seven year old mother of three in

Bakersfield

,

California

, I was the girl in the poem. I was at night, with the dead. I found myself feeling along windowsills in the dark, hunting for salt by touching it, begging for the vapors of boiling water to touch my thirsty skin.

My favorite of Ciccarello's techniques was her smattering of sweet surprises, like angel-of-death babies that appear unexpectedly within the poems themselves. They peek out from the corner of death's inner chamber, flirting with the reader.

Out of the darkness comes a string of words "whose love is just a series of letters".

When you read the words, "Stop listening" mark the book and close it.

Take the book outside.

Take a breath.

And read the next three poems aloud.

I can not put into words how the following three pages impacted me except to say I don't want to spoil your experience of them or of any of the rest of your time, "At Night, the Dead."

Get Your Copy from Blood Pudding Press on Etsy:

The Virtual Book Tour is brought to you in cooperation with

 If you would care to read some of Julie Jordan Scott's poetry, please visit her poetry blog by clicking this link.

Comments

[Pam]

Well done, Julie. You think being first was intimidating? I have mostly outlined my review but now realize that others may say the same thoughts before it's my turn. Your review was wonderful and certainly made me want to go outside and read those 3 poems aloud.

[Emily]

Your review was excellent. I think you were the perfect person to go first!

[Juliet Cook]

What a wonderful and evocative review! Thanks Julie.

I'm going to copy part of your review on the Blood Pudding Press blog (www.bloodyooze.blogspot.com) with a link to this blog.

Also, here is another link to the Blood Pudding Press etsy shop, so it does not look like 'At night, the dead:' is sold out:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=99221

Juliet Cook

[SarahJ]

Cool review. Is there a place to read an excerpt of this book?

[Julie Jordan Scott]

If you visit this link you will get to the books etsy page and you may read an excerpt there.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=29865236

[SarahJ]

thanks