EKHO
A Poem in Three Parts
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A profoundly playful poem in three parts, this work considers the echo as a social and historical phenomenon.
From Ekhō, the nymph of Greek mythology whose voice was stolen by the gods, to the advent of Amazon’s Echo smart speaker, the echo has been described as a condition of voicelessness, unfulfilled desire, loss, and entrapment. These poems reconsider echoing as a poetic practice and as an orienting device that tunes the world in to itself.
Roslyn Orlando’s debut collection combines Ancient Greek mythology with big tech to produce a philosophical, political, and psychological exploration of love, capitalism, resonance, and rage.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ekhō, the mountain nymph of Greek myth, transforms her disability (as a result of Hera's wrath, Ekhō can only repeat the speech of others) into a creative act in this imaginative debut from Orlando, who brings wry humor to the tale: "the nymphs were ambivalent/ toward his large thunderbolts/ but feigned admiration." After falling for indifferent Narcissus, who drowns in self-love, Ekhō embeds herself in a mountain and imagines alternative histories: "Loss propels desperate/ attempts to rebuild the self,/ with any material at hand." Philosophical digressions on the echo, a conference among famous mountains, and a robot's soliloquy (by Alexa, the Amazon Echo's voice-activated helper) lead to the climax in part three, an absurd Greek play set at a cocktail party, in which Ekhō and Alexa meet and converse. This sad and funny encounter, in which artificial intelligence and poetic diction bounce off each other, rises to the occasion: "Alexa: I beckon to human call, but I do not return it/ fully./ Ekhō: Nothing returns fully." It's a worthy collection.
