John Aiello’s First Book of Poems Now On Sale
HYMNS TO THE NIGHT ROAD (Poems For Dead Parents). John Aiello. Electric Review Press. With original art work by Eric Ward.
John Aiello and Electric Review Press announce the release of Hymns To the Night Road (Poems For Dead Parents) in paperback. The book, Aiello’s first collection of poems, is comprised of 53 poems and one essay written over the span of 30 years, with the pieces examining the aftermath of each of his parents’ deaths. Part elegiac remembrance part journalistic reportage, the book is thematically influenced by both Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish and the classic Tibetan Book of the Dead. Hymns To The Night Road is introduced by a statement from Ginsberg’s biographer Michael Schumacher, who edited several volumes of the seminal Beat poet’s journals for the University of Minnesota Press following Ginsberg’s death in 1997.
Aiello, a veteran critic and journalist, is also the author of A Higher Calling: A Review of the Judges and Lawyers Who Shaped the San Mateo County Courts (San Mateo County Historical Association; August 2020).
To order a print copy of Hymns To The Night Road, email electricrevieweditor1@gmail.com, and shipping/payment information will be provided.
Hymns To the Night Road
(Statement of Process)
(in)
The end
(bringing)
Forward this
Simple mission
(blend)
Hemingway’s succinct ability
To see
(shape)
And tell
A story
With Blake’s
Prescient imagery
(for)
Ever conscious
Of the way
(words)
Unfold to play
(these)
Turned up brows
Dripping down
The webs
Of the page
(McClure; Beats);
In the coffins
Of the end
(this)
Simple mission:
To create
An imperial haze
Framed in
A rich
Metallic hue
(and)
Brave enough
To own
Every star
Electric Review 