The Living Poetry Project: Part Two

According to Editor, Jason Cook of Ampersand Books:

In The Graves We Dig, Eric Elliott tunnels through memory and experience as he reconciles past and present, blood and bone, the sensation of loss with the knowledge that what is lost will remain so forever.  Grafted into beautiful photographs of decay, death, things that once were, each poem becomes a grave, a prayer.

This is all true of The Graves We Dig; the chapbook is a gorgeous literary depiction of loss. What can’t easily be captured in a write-up about Elliott’s book is how the book captures what grows from the decay of graves. Elliott pairs the poems with images that give an urgency to the work. The conversation between words and images makes this book an experience; much like walking through a cemetery, his book gives readers the visceral reaction of seeing tombstones adored with flowers and shaded by trees. The work is in conflict over the beauty found in a grave.

To honor this collection of poems, I decided to bury them. Okay, I admit this might seem counterproductive, but not when you consider it is always our most treasured parts of life we put in the ground. From pirate’s gold to grandma, what is loved is put under protective (often secretive) wraps.

Truly, when I die, more of “me” will be found hidden in the pages of books than a grave. Recently, I brought books from my home library to share with students; the students unearthed many of my forgotten treasure—an old parking ticket, a love letter, a movie stub, even my first ultrasound photos. Books are apparently my grave.

This tendency of mine to hide in books paired with Eric Elliott’s work had me thinking about public burials—how odd that we hide things in hopes that they will be found. I suppose, we make a grave believing that what is loved will always find a way to be remembered.

An unexpected surprise is always a great prize, for this reason I made over 50 photocopies of poems from The Graves We Dig and began burying them to be found. I buried them in corporate bookstores, parking lots, used bookstores, and second-hand stores. (I hope not to go to jail for this—it is such a fine line between giving and vandalism these days. I also hope that you find The Graves We Dig—love it, remember it, and hide it to be found again and again.)

Advertisement

---