Elliott
Brian Muriel

Etchings Press, University of Indianapolis
ISBN  978-1955521147
36 pages
Order at bookshop.org or other online sellers

Elliott is a poetry chapbook that illustrates the delicate balance between beauty and pain in caring for a child with special needs. Brian Muriel encapsulates a caregiver’s profound fear and love for his son.

In the poem “his brother,” Muriel delves into the relationship between two siblings. Initially, the children appear strikingly similar, but as they grow, their “mechanical” differences become starkly apparent, shattering the idyllic vision of their shared fairy tale and revealing a tragic reality. The oldest brother watches as his youngest lives the life any parent would wish for their child as their clock remains stuck between the seconds their brother’s clock passed years ago.

Muriel’s Elliott coaxes readers along an unflinching journey through parenthood, exposing the raw guilt accompanying the yearning for a “normal” child, both a dream and a nightmare. Muriel is unforgiving in his poetry, his words racing toward the period at the end of the chapbook, leaving readers breathless and contemplative. Brian Muriel brings a formidable view on caregiving and continues the long-needed conversation.

Interview with the Author

Etchings Press: What made you decide that you wanted to write a collection of poetry about your son and about caretaking?

Brian Muriel: I have been so fortunate to be my son’s father and to share him with my wife. Parenting him has been the most enriching experience of my life. To that end, I learned early on that a writer writes what they know and if I was going to compose a chapbook, I needed to select a topic that I authentically had a truthful knowledge of. Furthermore, there is a universal understanding about caregiving that I aimed to capture: that the surrendering is a gift. It primes us to experience true compassion and gratitude.

EP: Were there any poems that were difficult to write due to emotion or difficulty with portraying a message you wanted to portray in a poem?

Initially, I struggled immensely with the desire to safeguard my son’s privacy and to protect the experience my family has gone through. Once the chapbook became selected for publication, I felt this profound wave of vulnerability with how my own emotions were going to be seen by readers. Poems like “dream” and “city on a rooftop” where I express deep emotions of sadness and grief are especially revealing. Poems like those illustrate that there are moments in my caregiving where I struggle. Moments where I feel very weak, frightened, and exposed. One of my mentors brought to attention the idea that there is power in vulnerability. That the suffering I experience is the catalyst of my art and the source of my wholeheartedness.

EP: How do you want readers to feel when reading this collection? Is there a goal you had/have in mind either personally or for readers?

BM: Elliott captures the experience of being a caregiver to a child with special needs. However, my hope is that it resonates with all caregivers because the sheer act of giving care to a loved one enmeshes a person into the profound contradictions found in life and loss. As Elliott’s father, I am constantly teetering on the brink of both hope and heartache–triumph and tragedy. Because of this sensation, my collection of poems work in sets where the subsequent poem tells an alternative story of the poem that precedes it. I use parentheticals to aid in this objective where what is in the parenthesis can be considered a portal into the next poem that illustrates the other side of the story. This is because the sentiment of being Elliott’s father carries with it great–and sometimes contradictory—depth. My goal is to reanimate this duality for readers.