Last

by E.J. Mcadams

"In LAST, E.J. McAdams dares human resilience to witness extinction and what happens inside the middle voice, where "predicates of existing and happening" elevate stillness beyond survival."--Edwin Torres "What to do with the word 'nature' in poetry when we are destroying nature so quickly? How do we speak, much less sing, of so much extinction and human-caused loss? E.J. McAdams' response is to sing everything, all of it or as much as possible, sounded out, fearless, precise, surprising, shocking, in new poetic forms that better fit the drastic and frightening changes taking place on both macrolevel and the last of a species pecking through an eggshell, the peregrine in the freezer with a beak broken from a collision, what people say after wildfire burns their entire Paradise. I recommend reading E.J. McAdam's LAST out loud, singing/shouting each line in city parks, the subway, the office. Let it echo off the walls 'amidst skyscrapers' in an elegy for our ecology/our planet/our lives that is devastating, but joyous still in its love for what was and what might still be 'Nature be/ Nature be was/ Nature be is/ Nature be will be.'"--Marcella Durand, author of To husband Is to tender "For most folks Nature and New York City are like oil and water, mutually exclusive, a non sequitur, never the twain shall meet. In LAST, McAdams creates an emulsion of the urban and the natural with rhythmic riffs on the nuanced natural history known by Gotham's birdwatchers, environmental educators, and naturalists. It's what I might expect if Gary Snyder lived in the city instead of the Sierra; or if Li Po got his wine buzz on along the Hudson."--Michael Feller, Faculty, School of Visual Arts & former Chief Naturalist for NYC Parks and Recreation "LAST didn't want to arrive before right on time…spellbinding--as if, in his sense, a phoneme or two can make the difference between saying, slaying, or saving what we love as an act of grace. E.J. acts as if he truly believes words are as magical as the world."--Julie Ezelle Patton, author of Notes for Some (Nominally) Awake Poetry.

Genres: Poetry

94 pages, Paperback

Published September 10, 2023

Reviews

[TK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for April Is Poetry Month.

Admittedly, I am not fluent in poetry. But I read with a dictionary and looked up definitions and symbolism, which dramatically increased my appreciation. These poems are all related to the natural world and our environmental and ecological crisis. “The Decline of Herons in the Arthur Kill” was ineffably sad and beautiful. I re-read it several times. “Out of Paradise” was perhaps McAdams’s most straightforward poem, but also deeply affecting and thought-provoking on many levels.

[Kristens.reading.nook · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars