Poet Lucia Perillo at Benaroya Hall
Lucia Perillo’s poetry is all about bodies and animals; humans as meat, beasts as flesh, sex and desire. She’s also considered to be “the funniest poet writing today, which is saying a lot.” With works such as 2009’s Inseminating the Elephant, I’ve Heard the Vultures Singing: Field Notes on Poetry, Illness, and Nature (2007) and The Body Mutinies (1996), Perillo illustrates for readers those physical dimensions connecting humans to their animal counterparts. Her poems are at times embarrassing and grotesque, at others soothing and refreshing, but her explorations are always lively. And you can catch this Olympia resident reading tomorrow night at Benaroya Hall as part of the Seattle Arts and Lectures series (the event is nearly sold out).
It’s no surprise that Perillo has a degree in wildlife management and has worked in several National Parks. Her love for and understanding of animal life presents itself throughout her poetic work. In “The Turtle’s Heart,” readers ache for said turtle:
One night a raccoon, or a fox, I don’t know, climbed in
and opened the turtles as if they were clams
and left the hearts stretched on the ramparts
like surreal clocks—
even my thuggiest felon shivered as they ticked.
Both scientific and sentimental, the work exemplifies Perillo’s dichotomy. Other poems, such as “Love Swing,” investigate the tension between sex and bodies and our everyday lives that make us believe were are more than just animals.
I’ve bought a costume or two at the department store
that also sells chopped meat and pineapples
where you hide the straps and struts
between gardening gloves and a ream of typing paper
as they roll along the checkout’s conveyor belt
Here we catch a glimpse of Perillo’s infamous humor as we laugh at the impracticality of sexy fantasies. Her honestly about sex being both hidden in and mixed with all the objects of our every day lives is profound, embarrassing and all too real.
Tomorrow night is sure to remind us all of our inherent animalistic tendencies. It will be fascinating and uncomfortable. As Perillo concludes in “Four Red Zodiacs”, “Then, Infamous Reader, comes your turn to say: But we are all animals.”
Thursday, 7:30 p.m. // Benaroya Hall // $20 and up
