Furious Lullaby

by Oliver de la Paz

Furious Lullaby is both a celebration of and a eulogy to the body in the twenty-first century. The collection, which examines the larger concepts of salvation and temptation in a world of blossoming strife, includes a series of aubades – dramatic poems culminating with the separation of lovers at dawn. The lovers suffer a metaphysical crisis, seeking to know what is good, what is evil, and how to truly know the difference. Knowing, however, invites the terrible into their world. The Devil, a seductive trickster, haunts the landscape as a voice who dares each inquisitor to learn about mortality, morality, the beautiful, and the unspeakable through direct experience. Furious Lullaby offers a departure from the lighter prose poetry of de la Paz’s Names above Houses and preserves the author’s concern with the nature of human grace.

Genres: Poetry

82 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Oliver de la Paz was born in Manila, Philippines, and raised in Ontario, Oregon. He received his MFA from Arizona State University and has taught creative writing at Arizona State University, Gettysburg College, Utica College, Western Washington University, the College of the Holy Cross, and the Low-Res MFA Program at Pacific Lutheran University. His work has appeared in journals such as Quarterly West, North American Review, Third Coast, Asian Pacific American Journal, Poetry, New England Review, Tinhouse, in the anthology Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation .and elsewhere. Names Above Houses, a book of his prose and verse, was a winner of the 2000 Crab Orchard Award Series and was published by Southern Illinois University Press in 2001. His second book,Furious Lullaby, was published in 2007 by Southern Illinois University Press. And his third book, Requiem for the Orchard won the University of Akron Prize in 2009. Additionally he authored Post Subject: A Fable and co-edited A Face to Meet the Faces: Contemporary Persona Poetry with the author Stacy Lynn Brown. His most recent book is The Boy in the Labyrinth, published by the University of Akron Press which allegorically chronicles parenting sons on the Autism Spectrum through parable, myth, and academic questionnaires.

Reviews

[H]

When it rains, we are rained upon.
-Flutter

. . . Don't ask for a name
you can surrender, for there are more ghosts to placate.
Don't hurt for the sparrows, for they love you like a road."
-Aubade with Bread for the Sparrows

I know of two entry points to heaven.
One begins with a phrase I repeat.
The other begins with your shoulders in repose.
-Aporia, 6

I watch the scene on television for hours.
The devil tells me to write what I know. So child death
is a cousin's death. The house is mine. The lie,

a deal known as memory. . . / /
. . . Drama is danger

plus desire, a teacher said.
-Fury

A snowball can fit into the pocket but melts.
-Mysterious Essay

There are whole moments

riddling to things coming to irrelevance. . . The body
lighter in repose, the hush of a ball through a basket.
-Widening Aubade

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

[the birds] want / to eat the air and the stars they've hungered for, little razors (21)

Don't hurt for the sparrows, for they love you like a road. (21)

From the throat, a thistled song grew. (23)

To hear a pair of blue insects with diaphanous wings // emerge from the velour, rubbing their glass rattles, / against each other (33)

[Gerry LaFemina · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's always gratifying to have one of my peers write a book of poems that moves me--and this one does: Oliver de la Paz has written a phenomenal book of lyric poems that are musically alive, imagistically compelling, and emotionally resonant.

[Sara Kearns · Rating 4 out of 5]

quiet heartbreak, quirky and resonant reflections on religion, these poems are beautiful. i recognized the catholicism depicted and pondered here.

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still one of my absolute favorites 💙💙💙

[JM · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of poetry that never quite gripped me, but never really turned me away. I think my main issue with the style is that it feels fragmentary, all incomplete thoughts. Each piece is like a little snow globe, suspended in a flurry of imagery that's never quite grounded enough to land emotionally for me. There are some exceptions to this, such as The Devil's Book, but while it starts with a bit of narrative, it eventually also meanders off into description and ends mid-flight.

There are lots of turns of phrase that I do like from this collection. "The sound of gravel being kicked into a truck's stomach", on a horse farm stuck with me. The devil says "Say my name in gasoline". A snippet from one of the longer poems: "I know of two entry points to heaven. / One begins with a phrase I repeat. The other begins with your shoulder in repose."

My favorites are the recurring "My Dearest" pieces, which reminded me of "This is How You Lose the Time War". Hunting for similar literature is how I found this book to begin with. Of these pieces, my favorite is "My Dearest Regret":

"My Dearest Regret, You've found me and lost me again. How come there are interruptions in your day? ... I've called you 'thicket' sometimes. I've called you bramble and black lorry. You're my dearest one-ton truck. Were you with me at the chimney or the season which you listened with one ear? Sometimes I think you don't hear me and yet you stand there like a signpost, like a wrecked chute for grain. My dear bramble, dear black lorry, drive on. Drive past the field where the ruined chimney scratches the sky. Dearest thicket, you've found me out although I've been hiding in the silos near the field. You dominate the field."

These pieces are few and far between, however, and the collection overall left me feeling like I had taken a walk through the gift shop- taken a look at a few nice pocket-sized keepsakes, and decided that none were really for me.

[O. · Rating 4 out of 5]

all the "like" transitions bothered me a bit, but lovely, lovely.