Waiting for the Dead to Speak

by Brian Fanelli

WAITING FOR THE DEAD TO SPEAK merges the personal with the political. In this, his second full-length book of poems, Fanelli artfully recounts coming-of-age narratives that recall the poet's encounter with schoolyard bullies while also addressing post-9/11 America, global terrorism, Ferguson, Black Lives Matter, and widening economic inequality. The poems in this book beg for a protest movement or some leader to rise up and address the unraveling American dream and unfettered capitalism. Fanelli also references 1970s punk rock pioneers like The Clash and applies the band's four-chord tracks to current injustices. Other cultural references include Bruce Springsteen, James Dean, The X-Files, and horror movies, often to draw a connection between the poet and his industrial northeastern Pennsylvania hometown or the connection between the poet and his father. Often, the references serve as a way to show that despite differences, there are always some commonalities and shared interests between father and son. At the heart of the book is a questioning of what remains once loved ones depart or relationships dissolve, in particular ways in which past relationships impact the present.

Genres: Poetry

104 pages, Paperback

Published September 12, 2016

About the author

Brian Fanelli is the author of the chapbook Front Man (Big Table Publishing) and the full-length poetry collections All That Remains (Unbound Content) and Waiting for the Dead to Speak (NYQ Books). His poetry, essays, and book reviews have been published by The Los Angeles Times, World Literature Today, The Paterson Literary Review, Main Street Rag, Stone Canoe, Boston Literary Magazine, Kentucky Review, and elsewhere.He has an M.F.A. from Wilkes University and a Ph.D. from Binghamton University. Currently, he is a full-time English faculty member at Lackawanna College.

Reviews

[Joe Kraus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am pleased and proud to discover that Brian Fanelli is my neighbor and colleague – even though I have never met him. He teaches up the street from me at Lackawanna College, and he grew up in the region where I live now.

There’s a lot to like in this collection. In it, Fanelli reflects on what it was like to grow up here, a place where an interest in larger questions of social justice and acceptance could sometimes be met with violence, but he never condemns the place either. He loves it the way you love a mutt, wet nose and all.

He reflects as well on his experience as an adjunct faculty member – something I am only now surprised to have seen so little poetry about – about losing his father, and about (apparently) the house he and his now ex-wife bought together.

I was immediately taken by the first of these, “For Jimmy, Who Bruised My Ribs and Busted My Nose,” for a childhood bully. As he ends it, “This poem is for the bully who never cried,/ who hid belt lashes from us, who ran from the sound/ of his father’s battered Ford tracking him down,/ the son whose hands tightened to fists like his father’s,/ who uncurled his fingers to study new blood,/ and then extended a hand to lift me up.” It sets the tone for the ambivalent affection he has for our Northeast Pennsylvania region, and it stands as one of the best in the collection.

A couple of others appeal to me as well for their locale. “At Exit 170, I-81, I Blast the Ramones” tells of him thinking of a friend killed in an accident at the spot. It’s strange for me, who takes the exit everyday on my way home from work, to think of it as a space quietly hallowed by a loss I never knew.

“Temp Worker” spins a thoughtful poem about a man who, for a couple months between February and April 15, gets paid to dress as a Statue of Liberty and twirl a sign to promote a tax preparation service. I know the exact mall Fanelli names, and I think I’ve seen the very man he describes. Again, it’s a pleasure to see such poems built on the everyday experience we share.

My favorite of the teaching poems is “Unwritten,” about an angry but promising student who, because of addiction problems, has to suspend his semester. There’s a real beauty there in the idea that the student’s best work is ‘unwritten,’ that it will probably remain so. I love the poignancy of that aspect of teaching, and I suspect Fanelli – whose students are more economically vulnerable than mine – is all too familiar with it.

While I do admire many of the poems here – and while there are none I’d point to as disappointing – I do wish these were more carefully culled. In a few cases, we get what seem to be the same germ sprouted into similar poems. I think this would be an overall stronger collection if Fanelli removed 15-20 of the 75 or so that are here. That is, the repeated themes sometimes obscure one another where it might be stronger if some of the poems, standing more alone, focused the ideas behind them.

Bottom line, though, I am glad to get a sense of some of the good work coming out of our region. We’re a small enough town that I expect I’ll run into Brian before too long, and I’m glad to be able to admire his work.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection. Sensitive. You can feel the author longing for more time with his dad, and really with his mother too. The theme is repeated in his love of old houses and in his hope to do better at restoration. He would especially like to restore gardens to their younger splendor. With the plants and the houses he continues to want the dead to speak.
He also suffers the pain of an adjunct faculty member who has to work numerous jobs, unending hours and drive decrepit cars yet there is a nostalgia in keeping this old car running. And no matter how exhausting his work is you feel a pull toward better days to come and how much better this work is than slaving in coal mines as did his ancestors.
Then there are places where he just lives through music, dedication to causes for change and the acceptance of love.
Great pace and mix.

[Rachel P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great volume of poems which evoke a sense of place. This year I have experimented with poetry and want to see how other poets depict the region where I grew up. Thumbs up!

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewing later.