Sleeping with the Dead [Paperback]

W. D. Ehrhart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 2006

CONTENTS: Eleven poems ranging from the effects of fireworks on a war veteran to resurrecting the memory of an old love and finally burying it. None of these poems is about Ehrhart’s Vietnam experiences, but each is informed by those memories, whether listening to the president saying violence is not the answer while he is ordering missiles launched (“Kosovo”), or remembering that 9/11 changed the world similarly as did Sputnik where patriotism is called for or is called into question (“Manning the Walls”), or refusing to talk about escapist love (“All About Love”). Ehrhart’s voice is sure, his rhythms contemporary, his themes relevant and moving. EDITION: Limited to 390 handsewn copies letterpress printed from machine and handset Monotype Pabst Oldstyle onto archival Mohawk Superfine text with Classic Linen Graystone endwrapper and Royal Fiber Birch cover.

Editorial Reviews

Review

About Ehrhart’s Selected Poems (Adastra 1999), “I’m full of admiration for his achievement.” --Cover blurb by Stephen Dunn

About the Author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ex-Marine and Vietnam War veteran, W. D. Ehrhart is the author of fourteen books of poetry and prose, as well as ten poetry chapbooks. He holds degrees from Swarthmore, University of Illinois, and University of Wales (UK). His poems have appeared in such journals as American Poetry Review, North American Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, VVAW Veteran, and War, Literature & the Arts (the literary journal of the U.S. Air Force Academy). He has taught in high schools, colleges, and writing workshops. He currently teaches at the Haverford School. A native of Pennsylvania, he lives in Philadelphia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 28 pages
• Publisher: Adastra Press (February 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977666700
• ISBN-13: 978-0977666706
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,145,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poems for those who care what is right., May 4, 2007

By 

Charles J. Marr (Cambridge Springs, Pa USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sleeping with the Dead (Paperback)

Bill Ehrhart makes his readers confront their morality, that's right, morality . Many poets are into using poetry to get us to look at mortality. I think it is how they scare off the Mr. Death that hovers over their shoulder or in their closets. "Look, you readers, we are all in this thing and we will not get out alive. Did I say we, Ah yes! Well misery loves company." But not Ehrhart he has faced the reaper and seen him in the mirror and in the faces of his fellows. His acceptance of his own mortality allows him to use it as a tool to test the justice of our actions. He asks us to look at what we do to fellow humans, our poor fellows, our weaker fellows, our unfortunate fellows. He calls us to account with specifics. So his poetry is uncomfortable stuff. He has a fierce anger. The irony is that this most public poet is at his very best when he is private. Other reviews quote the title poem. Perhaps the most personal and the most fragile and mesmerizing in this chapbook. Which by the way is a wonderful piece of the bookmaker's art. I am pleased to have added it to my library.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A timeless and memorable collection of W. D. Ehrhart's poetry, May 8, 2006

By 

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

This review is from: Sleeping with the Dead (Paperback)

Sleeping With The Dead is a timeless and memorable collection of W. D. Ehrhart's poetry. Filled from first page to last with Ehrhart's remarkable style and progressive poetic resonance, Sleeping With The Dead is an twenty-four page, handsewn, elegant, showcased presentation. Sleeping With The Dead-- I dreamed about you again last night./This time, you were living in Tennessee,/on a horse farm, married, children/I think, it wasn't clear--but I finally/got you to see that I don't love you,/not like that: as if my world would end/without you in it.//O, to have been/so close, to have shared your bed, to have/felt like I'd been raised from the dead/after all those dead I slept with/every night. It almost drove me mad/to let you go.//But that was years ago,/married nineteen years and sorry only/that I've never had the chance to tell you/that it's okay, that I'm okay,/that no one could have saved me then,/not you or God, that I don't love you/anymore, but hope someone does.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Poems for Our Time, July 19, 2006

By 

pittsburgh writer n'at (pittsburgh, pa.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sleeping with the Dead (Paperback)

In these essential, heartbreaking poems, W.D. Ehrhart reveals the underbelly of these dark days. He takes us to Vietnam, to Kosovo, to September 11, to Columbine. He refuses to turn away from hopelessness, from violence, from injustice and hypocrisy. These are, yes, political poems, but they're also gorgeous and literary and they do what the best art does. They show us the truth about ourselves, our world, and what it means to be human. In Ehrhart's refusal to turn away from darkness, he brings light. As he goes deeper into hopelessness, he finds hope. When it seems as if there is no way to go on, he goes on. Just look at these lines from the title poem: "here I am / married nineteen years and sorry only / that I've never had the chance to tell you / that it's okay, that I'm okay, / that no one could have saved me then, / not you nor God, that I don't love you / anymore, but hope that someone does." William Carlos Williams once said: "It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there." Ehrhart's poems bring us both the news and the heart, the facts of the world and the emotional, spiritual insights that just might help us all go on.