I've Heard the Vultures Singing: Field Notes on Poetry, Illness, and Nature [Hardcover]

Lucia Perillo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 24, 2007

During her days as a park ranger, Lucia Perillo loved nothing more than to brave the Cascade Mountains alone, taking special pride in her daring solo skis down the raw, unpatrolled slopes of Mount Rainier. Then, in her thirties, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In I've Heard the Vultures Singing, Perillo confronts, in stark but funny terms, the ironies of being someone with her history and gusto for life being suddenly unable to walk. ("Ground-truthing" is what biologists call entering an environment and surveying what is there via the senses of sight and sound.) These essays explore what it’s like to experience desire as a sick person, how to lower one’s expectations just enough for a wilderness experience, and how to navigate the vagaries of a disease that has no predictable trajectory. I've Heard the Vultures Singing records in unflinching, honest prose one woman’s struggle to find her place in a difficult new world.

Editorial Reviews

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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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

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Trinity University Press; 1ST edition (May 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595340319
• ISBN-13: 978-1595340313
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,532,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy now while still in first edition, July 10, 2007

By 

NJC "Nature Nick" (East Bay, CA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: I've Heard the Vultures Singing: Field Notes on Poetry, Illness, and Nature (Hardcover)

I read everything Lucia writes and am never dissapointed. Both her poetry and prose flow beautifully on the page like a spring stream. Her deep insights on life form a back-eddy that will keep your brain swirling in thought for days after. Because of common interests and experiences: Buddhism, birds, east-coast Italian childhood, former park ranger, western-Washington state resident, etc., I delight in reading her take in these similar areas. Perillo always has unique and facinating insights that make me want to slap my forehead and go, "why didn't I think of that."
This book like her others is both tragic and funny. Maybe a little more sad because of the progression of the disease. Her husband Jim, who is mentioned several times in the book is a comic inspiration; not only because of his dedication, but his comic wit removes the chance of too much sentimentality.
I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates good, thought-evoking prose and especially if you have a medical condition where your body is changing and moving toward its final end - well, I guess that's all of us.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book worth your attention, July 11, 2007

By 

Ben Sonnenberg (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I've Heard the Vultures Singing: Field Notes on Poetry, Illness, and Nature (Hardcover)

It used to be one could recommend only three books that dealt with the complexities of multiple sclerosis in a manner both truthful and stylish: Diary of a Disappointed Man by W.N.P. Barbellion, Baroque 'n' Roll by Brigid Brophy and Lost Property by Ben Sonnenberg. Now I've Heard the Vultures Singing must be added to the list. Like Barbellion, Lucia Perillo is a gifted naturalist; like Brophy, a wit; like Sonnenberg, an ironist. More important, Ms Perillo is an accomplished poet. She commands a variety of voices: slangy, sexy, sublime. All of them are on show in this book of prose which is, in equal measure, hilarious and poignant.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoughtful, reflective, autobiographical narrative about adapting to severe change, highly recommended., September 1, 2007

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I've Heard the Vultures Singing: Field Notes on Poetry, Illness, and Nature (Hardcover)

Former park ranger and award-winning poet Lucia Perillo presents I've Heard the Vultures Singing: Field Notes on Poetry, Illness, and Nature, a memoir of the ups and downs in her life. When Lucia was in her thirties, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis; I've Heard the Vultures Singing recounts the difficulty of coming to terms with losing the ability to walk. She had to give up some of her favorite outdoor activities, such as hiking and skiing, and learn to enjoy the wilderness with lowered expectations, as well as how to apply her poetry to access and experience the wilderness. A thoughtful, reflective, autobiographical narrative about adapting to severe change, highly recommended.