The Laughter of Adam and Eve

90 Pages·2013·1.11 MB·English

by  Jason Sommer

poetry s
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“The Chinese have a word for it: hsin, heart/mind—and Jason Sommer has it in
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abundance—a probing intelligence that feels for what it sees, the insight the more acute r the laughter of adam and eve

for its connectedness. Here is a beautifully modulated existential anguish, knowledge

from the stunted tree that bears the fruit of exile, an unerring ear for the music of
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thought, ruefulness, the full monty of candor, an ironic awareness, and most movingly,
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the avowal of what is beyond irony.”—Eleanor Wilner l
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“The beautiful and varied poems in Jason Sommer’s The Laughter of Adam and Eve are set g
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at the intersection of skepticism and faith: a faith his skepticism can neither endorse nor t
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undo, and a skepticism his faith can neither accept nor escape. Plainspoken, ferociously r

and tenderly energetic, enmeshed in history even while it yearns for the miraculous, this o
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is a fabulous book by a fabulous poet who deserves what he has surely earned: a wide a
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and enthusiastic audience.”—Alan Shapiro, author of Night of the Republic
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“The Laughter of Adam and Eve begins and ends with the mystery of creation. In a
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world where time is deep and memory long, these poems stand witness to the miracle n
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of the now, the present emerging constantly out of the disasters of our past. There
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are no heroes here: ‘all the light / left to us of the tens of thousands’ flickers through
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images caught in the moment of their disappearance. But in Sommer’s vision, each

disappearance gives way to the as yet unseen, forever surprising and new.”
—Cynthia Huntington, author of Heavenly Bodies
l Jason Sommer’s previous poetry collections are Lifting the Stone,
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n Other People’s Troubles, and The Man Who Sleeps in My Office.
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vid He has published translations of Irish language poems and, with
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d Hongling Zhang, Chinese fiction: Wang in Love and Bondage by s
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Wang Xiaobo and The Bathing Women by Tie Ning. He has won, u
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among other awards, a Whiting Foundation Writer’s Fellowship. h
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He is a professor of English at Fontbonne University in St. Louis. r
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crab orchard series in poetry—open competition award l
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Printed in the United States of America u
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cover design: Erin Kirk New
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cover illustration: From the Sarajevo Haggadah; e
published by Rabic, Ltd., Sarajevo r
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Southern Illinois University Press
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www.siupress.com s
SommerCvMech.indd 1 7/29/13 8:24 AM
THE LAUGHTER OF ADAM AND EVE
CRAB ORCHARD SERIES IN POETRY
Open Competition Award

THE LAUGHTER OF ADAM AND EVE
POEMS BY JASON SOMMER
Crab Orchard Review &
Southern Illinois University Press
Carbondale
Copyright © 2013 by Jason Sommer
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
16 15 14 13 4 3 2 1
The Crab Orchard Series in Poetry is a joint publishing venture
of Southern Illinois University Press and Crab Orchard Review.
This series has been made possible by the generous support of the
Office of the President of Southern Illinois University and the
Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost at
Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Editor of the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry: Jon Tribble
Judge for the 2012 Open Competition Award: Cynthia Huntington
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sommer, Jason.
[Poems. Selections]
The laughter of Adam and Eve : poems / by Jason Sommer.
pages ; cm. — (Crab Orchard series in poetry)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8093-3278-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8093-3278-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8093-3279-3 (ebook)
ISBN-10: 0-8093-3279-5 (ebook)
I. Title.
PS3569.O6532L38 2013
811’.54—dc23 2013008339
Printed on recycled paper.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standard for Information
Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1992.
for Allison,
for Gabriel

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
The Laughter of Adam and Eve: A Detail 3
New Covenant, Causality 5
The One Who Knows All Language 6
Brouhaha 8
At the Akhmatova Museum, Fountain House Annex 10
Signs and Wonders 13
Film Clips of Munkacs, 1933 17
Gunga Din 20
Saint Kevin, Blackbird, and Others 23
No Script 27
Resignation Bird 33
Sleeping with a Woman Who Writes 34
The Love of Pygmalion 37
Lover 39
A as Insignia 40
Vile 44
That Dream, Your Dream, She Says 46
Enemies 47
Her Pleasure in Herself 48
Fashion Show 50
Plague Tale 51
In a Breath 53
Mytheme 54
What Old David Felt 55
Religion, Then Science 56
To One at Risk 59
This My Failure This My Life This My 62
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Regret 63
First Things 64
Escaped to Tell 65
Passengers Will . . . 67
At Day’s End, as at the End of Any Day 68
Evening 69
Letting It in a Little 70
That the Compensations of Art 72
Spend, Spend 74
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Acknowledgments
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the periodicals in which these poems
first appeared:
AGNI ONLINE: “Brouhaha”
Boulevard: “Resignation Bird,” “Signs and Wonders,” “Film Clips of
Munkacs, 1933”
Crab Orchard Review: “The One Who Knows All Language”
Delmar: “First Things”
Sou’wester: “The Laughter of Adam and Eve: A Detail”
The Cincinnati Review: “New Covenant, Causality,” “Passengers Will . . . ,”
“Gunga Din,” “No Script”
The Cortland Review: “Escaped to Tell”
Witness: “Plague Tale”
Thanks also to Poetry Daily for posting “The Laughter of Adam and Eve:
A Detail.”
I want to express my deep appreciation to my first responders—Alan
Shapiro, Jane O. Wayne, Chuck Sweetman, Shane Seely, Jeff Hamilton, Lisa
Ampleman, and Lisa Pepper—for their help and encouragement, and to thank
Cynthia Huntington for her selection of my manuscript and Jon Tribble for
his attentive reading of it.
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