I've Heard the Vultures Singing: Field Notes on Poetry, Illness, and Nature - Softcover

Perillo, Lucia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1595340580 ISBN 13: 9781595340580

Publisher: Trinity University Press, 2009

Synopsis

Acclaimed poet and MacArthur Foundation Fellow, Lucia Perillo, a former park ranger who loved to hike the Cascade Mountains alone and prided herself on daring solo skis down the wild slopes of Mount Rainier, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was in her thirties. I've Heard the Vultures Singing is a clear-eyed and brazenly outspoken examination of her life as a person with disabilities. In unwavering and witty prose, and without a trace of self-pity, she contemplates the bitter ironies of being unable to walk, what it’s like to experience eros as a sick person, how to lower one’s expectations for a wilderness experience, and how to deal with the vagaries of a disease that has no predictable trajectory. Masterfully written, the essays resonate with lovers of literature and nature, and with anyone who has dealt with disadvantages of the body or the hard-luck limitations of ordinary life.

About this title

From Booklist

In her thirties, Perillo was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis—a difficult thing to hear for anyone but especially poignant for an outdoors type as much in love with nature as Perillo, who when younger worked as a ranger in various wilderness settings. Back then, she took her body and good health for granted. The early days of the diagnosis and the attendant uncertainty of not knowing what kind of future awaited her became nearly unbearable. In one essay, she describes her conflict over what to call herself. "Cripple" or "disabled"? Disliking the latter's negative connotations, she preferred clinging to the fantasy "that I could do anything with the right technology." She describes her physical symptoms, muses about Greek and Latin tragedies, and reminisces about former occupations, including a stint teaching remedial English at a college attached to a Benedictine monastery before her limp became pronounced. Whatever the memory, the illness haunts her without actually defining her. Written with the sensibility of the poet that she is, a lovely portrait of resilience, hope, and true grit. Sawyers, June

From Publishers Weekly

In this thoughtful and eloquent memoir, comprising previously published essays, poet Perillo (Luck Is Luck) observes the world around her from her four-foot-high wheelchair. Once an intrepid park ranger in the Cascade Mountains, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in her 30s and must now navigate the world without the use of her legs. Like the memoir, her life moves at a slow pace, full of bird watching, pondering and even occasional sex; she uses her heightened senses and a poet's prose to give a vivid, tragicomic portrayal of her current life and reflections on her bipedal past. Whether she's taking notes on seagulls, trees, salmon, poetry or herself, she writes astutely and gracefully. However, in her close observations, she rarely steps back to see the forest, and her nonlinear organization provides little emotional resonance. Nevertheless, Perillo's physical debilitation has only strengthened her poetic voice, which remains healthy, alive and breathing that fresh mountain air.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Trinity University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1595340580
• ISBN 13: 9781595340580
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256