There
In the Light and Darkness of the Self and of the Other
By Etel Adnan
There is a prose poem which becomes a long and poignant interrogation. Etel Adnan is asking whether or not there is an other out there, or if it is all a matter of being alone in the world. To what a degree can we know the other and what exactly do we know? There investigates also the idea of conflict, between individuals or countries. Are we doomed to have conflicts as soon as we are two? A conversation, she says "is the beginning of civilization."
I woke up this morning realizing that Etel has presented us with "A Geology of the Spirit."
—Barbara Guest
There is a poem of hidden seams, fissures that we cross unsuspecting. A smooth surface conceals a universe of sudden shifts and transitions from one level to another—a philosophical level which pursues the mysteries of consciousness and place, a second level which asks the same questions ("do I have to have a nationality in order to be human?") in a committed social and political vision, a passionate and engaged post-modernism.
—Michael Beard, Univ. of North Dakota
Publication Date March 15, 1997 80 pages $13.00 ISBN: 978-0-942996-28-9
