P. H. Liotta
THE GRAVEYARD OF FALLEN MONUMENTS

Quale Press
ISBN 10: 0-9744503-8-3
ISBN 13: 978-0-9744503-8-4
Paper, 96 pp., 8.2x7.5
$16

The Graveyard of Fallen Monuments is a personal history of the author’s humanity. Comprising over a quarter century’s work of poems, from a memoir-in-verse of a near fatal ascent of Iran’s mythic Mount Damavand to reflections on the current disasters in the Middle East and Southwest Asia, this book is both a personal and a political statement. While the focus is often on personal, often incredible experience, Liotta never moves far from the issue of family—especially concerns for the future of his daughter, Gaia. In a larger sense, of course, this book is finally an expression for the “larger” Gaia, the earth itself, and mother of us all.

“P. H. Liotta’s poems embody expansive intelligence, wit, and a moral capacity that is inclusive and demanding without ever being didactic. These poems embrace history and the present, the small beautiful moments of family life and the horrors some families endure. Liotta’s robust lyricism, his knowledge of myth and non-western cultures, informs his poetry with timelessness and elegance.” —Denise Duhamel, author of Two and Two and Kinky

“These poems are informed by passionate intelligent love for the known world. Their speaker suffers our suffering human kind, foreign and domestic; our terrible violence, our cherished tenderness. We are brought to a halt by this immediate and large-minded vision of the real—the glorious daughter crowned with flowers, the friend dead in his blood on the street—and the poet who transfigures them into the first-hand lines of poems.” —Marie Ponsot, from the citation for the Robert H. Winner Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America

“P. H. Liotta has always brought intensity and commitment to whatever he does, whether he’s writing a book on lawless countries or on peregrine falcons, or flying missions over the former Yugoslavia. The Graveyard of Fallen Monuments is no exception.. Liotta writes political poems that aren’t preachy; poems about his family, especially his daughter Gaia, that aren’t sentimental; and poems about loss that demand hope. “Will we deserve the mutilated earth?” Liotta asks. “Is there something wrong with peace?” At a time when most of our poets are navel gazing, doing stand-up comedy, or playing meaningless linguistic games, P.H. Liotta has written a book that will shake people up.  With The Graveyard of Fallen Monuments, he has become a lightning rod for a whole generation’s hopes and fears.” —Peter Johnson, author of Eduardo & “I”; winner of the Academy of American Poets James Laughlin Award for Miracles & Mortifications

POETRY