Customer Reviews

Up Jump the Boogie

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Up Jump the Boogie is one of those rare, hauntingly magical works that will suck you into the poetic world of urban life. John Murillo gives the junkies, hookers and hustlers, a name, a face. He tells us how "little Ebony" the "almost prom queen" comes to sell herself for five bucks behind a dumpster. Then there's The Prisoner's Wife who learns that making love to her man fresh out of the big house isn't what it used to be. There are odes to a father, b-ball and Marvin Gaye. Through it all is the rhythm of love and heart ache.

Murillo "praises it all," the moon that "hung high and round as one of Dolores' breasts," the ailing father who's hands "Held both grandbabies and grenades" yet stumbles "under the weight of a number two pencil," and the "Streetwalking woman, sister of my soul. In the day's last light, she is almost beautiful." You don't have to be a lover or poetry to feel the enchantment of this book. His first time out, Murillo slam dunks.

I had the great pleasure of reading this book recently: it is a wonderful collection of poems. Beautiful language, evocative of times and places far more real than I am used to in poetry. Power and impact. Highly recommended. See the author's site for some of his poetry: [...].

A really magnificent poetry collection -- the lines are so finely wrought, so intelligent, but spilling over, too, with a great force of real music and emotion. I think of the poem "Enter the Dragon" so often ever since I read it, both because it's so beautiful and because it hurts ... I just loved this book, and I highly recommend it.

I'm really awed by the broad and personal intertwinings in this collection. Murillo, in poems packed with pulse and music, creates a universal appeal and accessibility to his personal experience. I really recommend it. I don't see how these poems are cryptic, as another reviewer suggests--but to each their own. I would say that Murillo's movement is broad--it works in both a linear and connotative progression--but that's part of what makes this collection resonate. Maybe if you prefer things to be purely linear, bits and pieces of Murillo's book could be difficult. But for me, life isn't just linear. Memory isn't linear. As art reflects life, I don't see why poetry should be only linear.

Bottom line: an exciting first collection. I look forward to more. If you haven't checked it out, one of Murillo's stand out poems from this collection, "Enter the Dragon," is up (with audio) on a great poetry audio site/resource From the Fishouse. I won't link it here, in hopes it doesn't get filtered.

In "Ode to the Crossfader," the poem which starts his debut collection "Up Jump the Boogie," John Murillo establishes himself & his poetic voice perfectly: confident, fresh, familiar, engaging and infinitely readable.

With "Up Jump the Boogie," Murillo explores every angle of his life, from his childhood to his neighborhood, from his family to his lovers, from his daily rituals to the pilgrimages he takes to the graves of poets he admires. I was impressed at the arcs & juxtapositions the poet utilized in ordering the poems, allowing you to receive information in an organic way which would pay off -- either complimentary or contrasting ways -- the more you read. Many of the poems in this book beg to read aloud -- rhythmic and playful, startlingly fun. Other simmer and smolder, demanding return visits & rereads. There is a lot of complexity, turns & angles we don't see coming, grey areas where good and bad mix unapologetically. And yet the book is filled with such "mighty, mighty joy" that it practically bubbles.

Cyper Books is a relatively new press, but its stable of poets -- including Suheir Hammad, Roger Bonair-Agard and Rachel McKibbens (whose own debut "Pink Elephant" is definitely worth a look!) -- is practically flawless. Murillo and "Up Jump the Boogie" are a perfect additions, and I am already looking forward to poets Cypher will spotlight next.