The Laughter Of Adam And Eve (crab Orchard Series In Poetry)
by Jason Sommer /
2013 / English / PDF
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Near the beginning, just after the fall, was laughter—at least
as Jason Sommer imagines it. In the title poem, Eve catches
Adam’s hilarity over what passes for a tree outside of Eden,
their laughter a heady combination of longing, defiance, and
perhaps even relief, through which they find they now possess
“a knowledge of evil that is good,” an understanding that will
carry them through life after paradise. Through settings
mythical, historical and biblical, through characters that
range from Gunga Din to St. Kevin of Glendalough, the poems in
this book often search out meaning in the tracing of origins:
of a bird’s song, of laughter, of a word, of language
itself. Poems explore the source of the word
Near the beginning, just after the fall, was laughter—at least
as Jason Sommer imagines it. In the title poem, Eve catches
Adam’s hilarity over what passes for a tree outside of Eden,
their laughter a heady combination of longing, defiance, and
perhaps even relief, through which they find they now possess
“a knowledge of evil that is good,” an understanding that will
carry them through life after paradise. Through settings
mythical, historical and biblical, through characters that
range from Gunga Din to St. Kevin of Glendalough, the poems in
this book often search out meaning in the tracing of origins:
of a bird’s song, of laughter, of a word, of language
itself. Poems explore the source of the wordbrouhaha
brouhaha, the song of the “resignation bird,” and the
dangerous way a poem of Anna Akhmatova enters the world, under
the eyes and ears of Stalin’s secret police, escaping the house
arrest its author must endure.
, the song of the “resignation bird,” and the
dangerous way a poem of Anna Akhmatova enters the world, under
the eyes and ears of Stalin’s secret police, escaping the house
arrest its author must endure.
In
InThe Laughter of Adam and Eve
The Laughter of Adam and Eve, Sommer speaks from a
multitude of voices and perspectives, in short, formal lyrics
as well as longer free-verse narratives. From the archetypal
parents of us all, down through anonymous voices, throughout
these pages, women and men speak to—and of—each other, in many
roles and relations—as lover and beloved, as child and parent,
as dreamer and dreamt of. The poems attempt to travel beyond
the traditional binary in search of the common thread that
binds us to one another. Perhaps chief among them is story:
whether recasting myth so that Pygmalion and Narcissus become a
single figure or using an Appalachian tale retold as a message,
lover to lover, these poems narrate, while engaging deeply with
those special properties that poetry can bring to story.
, Sommer speaks from a
multitude of voices and perspectives, in short, formal lyrics
as well as longer free-verse narratives. From the archetypal
parents of us all, down through anonymous voices, throughout
these pages, women and men speak to—and of—each other, in many
roles and relations—as lover and beloved, as child and parent,
as dreamer and dreamt of. The poems attempt to travel beyond
the traditional binary in search of the common thread that
binds us to one another. Perhaps chief among them is story:
whether recasting myth so that Pygmalion and Narcissus become a
single figure or using an Appalachian tale retold as a message,
lover to lover, these poems narrate, while engaging deeply with
those special properties that poetry can bring to story.