On Wednesday March 29th at 8pm at BJ’s Lounge in the Bywater 4301 Burgundy St. for the Blood Jet Poetry Series, Todd will be celebrating the release of his new book of poems Burning the Evidence published by Epic Rites Press with a reading along with poet Clare Welsh. Come on down, there will be strong drinks, cheap books for sale (only $10), great jukebox, slanted pool table, corner bar beauty and fun.
Tag Archives: relationships
Todd Cirillo book release reading 3/29-New Orleans
Filed under Giveaway, Poetry, Publishing, Small Press, The Writer's Life, Uncategorized, Writing
Midnight Lane Boutique features Todd Cirillo
The incomparable Midnight Lane Boutique features Todd Cirillo and publishes three new poems. Click the link below and you can also order Todd’s new book Burning the Evidence (Epic Rites Press 2017) at the end of the article.
https://midnightlanegalleryii.wordpress.com/2017/03/11/feature-poet-todd-cirillo/
Feature Poet: Todd Cirillo
Todd Cirillo is co-founder and editor of Six Ft. Swells Press. His poems have appeared in numerous national and international literary journals, magazines and cocktail napkins everywhere. His books include ROXY (R.L. Crow Publications, 2003), Everybody Knows the Dice are Loaded (Rattlesnake Press, 2006), This Troubled Heart(Lummox Press, 2010), Sucker’s Paradise (Six Ft. Swells Press, 2012), and Sexy Devils (Epic Rites Press, 2016), among others. Todd lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, and can be found at afterhourspoetry.com or epicrites.org.
*
In Complete Agreement
She stood me up
on a Sunday.
On Monday
she sent me a text
saying she
ended up getting drunk
with an old boyfriend
but she was sorry
and it would never
happen again.
I looked at my phone
in complete agreement
with her
as I
hit
delete.
*
Nothing Wasted
I am using the last
of your shampoo.
I spent the .84 cents
left on the desk
where there once stood
a vase with yellow flowers.
I am playing
the Pink Floyd album
you forgot.
I gave the leftover
pack of cigarettes
to the first
homeless person
I saw.
Instead of throwing
it all away
I thought,
why waste it.
There has been enough
of that already.
*
Premonition
Everyone was dancing—
except you.
It was supposed
to be a good time.
You and I
and a thousand
other lovers
under the moon,
listening
to the Rebirth Brass Band
sing from the stage,
“I used to love her
but it’s all over now.”
I went and ordered
two more beers,
thinking
that might loosen
the evening.
You did not want another.
“Two for me then,”
I thought out loud,
and smiling
up at the white moon
felt the breeze
come off the river
and watched the girls’ dresses
rise as they twirled.
I continued to dance
and make friends
with those around us,
our space on the lawn
getting smaller and smaller.
You had no idea
what was coming,
but I sure did.
*
All Hail! Todd Cirillo’s latest collection, Burning the Evidence (2017), is available via Epic Rites Press.* Please, click on the cover image below to learn more . . .
*Cover photo by Matt Amott; cover design by Julie Valin.
Filed under break up, Drinking, Poetry, Publishing, Small Press, The Writer's Life, Uncategorized
Review of Burning the Evidence by Todd Cirillo
“Todd Cirillo’s, Burning the Evidence, leaves your heart like “hail shattered windshields”. It is broken and beautiful, cynical with a hint of hope and a twist of absurdism, ugly but true. The poems hit you like a .357 Magnum. Some ask questions that others seem to answer. While some poems are almost too honest to bare. One page Todd is “just checking to make sure she’s still there and a few pages down he’s sleeping alone to the sound of tires on wet pavement and the clock”. This glorious, fragmented storyline is so perfectly threaded in highs and lows, heartaches and breaks, goodbyes and come-ons, your head will twist.”
—Madeline Levy, PERFUME & CIGARETTES
You can order Burning the Evidence and get your head twisted at:
Filed under break up, Drinking, lost love, Poetry, Publishing, Small Press, The Writer's Life, Uncategorized, Writer's Block, Writing
Burning the Evidence poems by Todd Cirillo available to order now!
Todd Cirillo’s book Burning the Evidence by Epic Rites Press is filled with snapshot observations from his Polaroid eye for detail, thieves’ ear for dialogue, and optimistic attempts at love and affection in all situations. Cirillo accomplishes a rare feat; he makes poetry relatable and accessible to every person. In these poems, he lays his heart bare on the bar, sometimes stupidly, other times sacrificially, but always sincerely. Some poems are punches to the gut, others are chocolates on the pillow or the last glimpse of red taillights fading away. Despite the disasters in life and love, Cirillo finds beauty “forever shining down on the whole filthy set up” and after reading this book, you will too.
You can order the book at http://www.epicrites.org/pre-order.html or http://www.epicrites.org
Dear friends: I would love to send each of you a copy with all my love, however, that would be unfair to the publisher, Epic Rites Press, who spent much time and money to put this collection into the world. So, even though the book is not free, my love is, especially if you support Epic Rites Press and this poet by purchasing a copy or ten (they make incredible gifts!) At an affordable $10, this a happy hour deal not to be missed. Cheers!
“Like the great Bill Gainer, Todd Cirillo says more in a few words than most of us can say in volumes. This book is full of love, heartbreak, music and the occasional watering hole. Cirillo doesn’t just burn the evidence, he lights up the night sky with it, baring his heart, like a neon highway sign, beating 24/7–with words.” –John Dorsey, Tombstone Factory
“Language chiseled onto the page and wholly accessible. A poet of unmistakable voice–tough but capable of tenderness…” –Wayne F. Burke, DICKHEAD
“You don’t have to look far. Just throw a dart at the map, you’ll find a little piece of his heart – broken, a girl burning his number in an ashtray, and a beer soaked napkin bleeding a two word not – You Bastard…It’s always a good place for Cirillo to start, that’s why I love this guy – and his poems.” –Bill Gainer, Lipstick and Bullet Holes
Filed under break up, Drinking, lost love, Poetry, Publishing, Small Press, The Writer's Life, Uncategorized, Writer's Block, Writing
New Poems on the horizon, coming soon from Todd Cirillo
Coming soon from Epic Rites Press, http://www.epicrites.org a new full-length collection from Todd Cirillo. Stay tuned….start clearing space next to your bed and on your bookshelf.
Filed under break up, Drinking, lost love, Poetry, Publishing, Small Press, The Writer's Life, Uncategorized, Writer's Block, Writing
Get it today! Perfume & Cigarettes now available!!
We at Six Ft. Swells Press are celebrating and invite you to celebrate with us. Out today, the new book of poetry by Madeline Levy, click the link below to purchase your copies. This is an extraordinary book of poems from and exceptionally talented poet and person and we are proud to add Madeline’s work to the Six Ft. Swells catalogue, which continues to pillage the poetry world in true After-Hours style. Don’t believe us? Read her words and see how your heart feels after…
The poems in Perfume & Cigarettes by Madeline Levy come at you like Tom
Waits driving a 1957 Cadillac onto the sleek asphalt of night, with only the
red glow of taillights sending kisses on the road to everywhere. These poems
take us places, somewhere between the proper and the profane, the dive
bars and the five-star restaurants. These are poems with wicked grins and
sharp edges that will leave a “tiny-sized cut in the back of your heart,” and
make us believe that “apple pie & cyanide” are a good idea.
Filed under break up, Drinking, lost love, Poetry, Publishing, Small Press, The Writer's Life, Uncategorized, Writer's Block, Writing
Catching Lightening from Perfume & Cigarettes
Filed under break up, lost love, Poetry, Publishing, Small Press, The Writer's Life, Uncategorized, Writing
This is the end….my only friend.
Well well, here we are coming upon the end of a year. We at Six Ft. Swells Press would like to take this opportunity to offer our appreciation to all of you for making our year successful and above all, fun. We thank those of you who supported us by buying our books, merchandise and coming to our shows, buying our drinks and falling in love with us, as we have fallen in love with you, over and over again. We created, fondled, found love, lost love, cashed out, blacked out, wrote some good poems, wrote some shit poems, made poor choices, made choices we were sure were brilliant at the very least, wrestled with demons inside of us, wrestled with demons inside of you…that came out in the wee hours, we traveled, gave readings, found words written on cocktails napkins in the morning, taken photographs, slow danced on the side of the road and survived the apocalypse. Any one of those in this world is a helluva an accomplishment and to think that we did it together, is as beautiful as a first kiss at sunrise.
The pirates and poets at Six Ft. Swells Press, released two stellar books amongst all this movement. “The Coast Is Clear” by Matt Amott and “Sucker’s Paradise” by Todd Cirillo changed the direction and understanding of poetry and pushed forth the essential notion that poetry can be fun, frivolous and full of sex, love and miscommunication. These books as well as Julie Valin’s magnificent “The Distance Between” are available at amazon.com through the diligence of the masterminds at Six Ft. Swells Press, we keep movin on up to that big high rise in the sky. This is a new dawn. Ride the wave. Fuck the establishment. It’s a good time to be us. We have created more than most in the poetry world and more importantly, stayed together as friends, companions and co-conspirators. We have reestablished old poetic connections of friendships and poetic allies and kicked the masses in the ass, showing them our style of After-Hours Poetry. This has been a good year.
Now, when it’s midnight, and the rain hits your roof and Muddy Waters sings, “I just can’t be satisfied” rolls out your speakers. Understand where we come from and where we at Six Ft. Swells are going…we just can’t be satisfied. Not with the state of poetry we hear out there, the relationships we are in, the jobs we do 9-5, the words we put on paper. But we’ve got each other and we’ve got the poems we’ve written, so let’s keep trying and because of your kind encouragements we know we are on the right road.
Please continue to support Six Ft. Swells Press in the the new year, tell your friends and support us any way you can…remember, even a small ship can make big waves.
We are with you. And when you are shipwrecked and the waves come upon your head and all seems lost…we may not throw you a life raft, but we will jump in and ask if you want to go skinny-dipping.
Bring it on,
your friends at Six Ft. Swells Press,
Matt, Julie and Todd
Filed under Drinking, Poetry, Publishing, Small Press, The Writer's Life, Uncategorized, Writing
Todd Cirillo
Julie Valin
Matt Amott
After Hours Poetry 