Cloud Cantata

by Carla Harryman

"Carla Harryman's canny CLOUD CANTATA puts before us a set of inexhaustible, unhurried conversational moments into which diverse quotidian and increasingly pressing topics arrive. Perhaps the moments are sequential--it seems to be morning, though 'morning' here is a relative term. Breakfast seems variously either underway, in preparation, or just finished, and repeatedly one or the other of the conversants mentions something about a dream of the night before. And, too, the phrase 'January to September 2021' appears on the title page. Or perhaps, as I prefer to think, they are vivid alternative versions of a long, multifaceted moment of emergent dialogue, each iteration of which refuses to be hastened to some end. It is morning, after all; incipience is in the air. And for that moment--for the sake of that moment--it is possible to greet the world, even in the throes of its tragedies. CLOUD CANTATA enacts that possibility, summoning onto the scene bravery and play. It's magnificent."--Lyn Hejinian Poetry. Drama.

80 pages, Paperback

Published June 10, 2022

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cloud Cantata is a dreamy, funny, playful, philosophical set of dialogues (or plays?) exploring/challenging “the distinctions between self and other, dream and reality, memory and fantasy, proximity and distance, subject and interlocutor.” Harryman plays with form here; “Blend” is a kind of palindrome, “Fugue” seems to be a kind of cento from lines in the book itself, and probably more is going on formally. What I appreciate most about this book is its humor. It’s nice/helpful to be able to laugh when thinking of COVID, and this book—amount other emotions—evoked plenty of laughter for me. “Okay, look my dear little armchair shrink pal, it’s time for breakfast.”