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Ceive
A poetic retelling of Noah’s Ark set in the near future, Ceive is a novella-in-verse that recounts a post-apocalyptic journey aboard a container ship.
The narrative unfolds through poems following the perspective of a woman named Val, who is found in the wreckage of her flooding home by a former UPS delivery man. As environmental and political catastrophes force them to flee the Eastern Seaboard, Val and her rescuer take refuge alongside a group of pilgrims seeking refuge from the catastrophic collapse of a civilization destroyed by gun violence, climate crisis, and social unrest.
The ship of cargo and refugees is run by the captain Nolan and his wife Nadia, who set sail for Greenland, now warmed to a temperate climate. The couple place Val in charge of caring for a neurodivergent young boy who holds knowledge of analog navigation. Mourning her missing daughter, Val experiences both isolation and a wellspring of compassion in survival, an indefatigable need to connect. She and the other pilgrims weather illness and peril, boredom and conflict, deprivation and despair as they set sail across stormy, unfamiliar waters.
Drawing from the Anglo-Saxon poem “The Seafarer,” the Bible, and the Latin root word for receive, Ceive is a vision of eco-cataclysm and survival—inviting meditations on biodiversity, illness, social law, sustenance, scripture, menopause, sensory perception, human bonds, caregiving, and loss, all the while extending a call for renewal and hope.
The narrative unfolds through poems following the perspective of a woman named Val, who is found in the wreckage of her flooding home by a former UPS delivery man. As environmental and political catastrophes force them to flee the Eastern Seaboard, Val and her rescuer take refuge alongside a group of pilgrims seeking refuge from the catastrophic collapse of a civilization destroyed by gun violence, climate crisis, and social unrest.
The ship of cargo and refugees is run by the captain Nolan and his wife Nadia, who set sail for Greenland, now warmed to a temperate climate. The couple place Val in charge of caring for a neurodivergent young boy who holds knowledge of analog navigation. Mourning her missing daughter, Val experiences both isolation and a wellspring of compassion in survival, an indefatigable need to connect. She and the other pilgrims weather illness and peril, boredom and conflict, deprivation and despair as they set sail across stormy, unfamiliar waters.
Drawing from the Anglo-Saxon poem “The Seafarer,” the Bible, and the Latin root word for receive, Ceive is a vision of eco-cataclysm and survival—inviting meditations on biodiversity, illness, social law, sustenance, scripture, menopause, sensory perception, human bonds, caregiving, and loss, all the while extending a call for renewal and hope.
- GenresPoetry
120 pages, Paperback
First published September 21, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 6, 2022
This was an absolutely fascinating read! A novella in verse, Ceive tells a version of Noah's ark...except it's the futuristic, post-apocalyptic version. This book is dark and sad and haunting, with a tiny glimmer of hope at the end.
August 28, 2024
oh my gawd SOOOO brilliant
February 11, 2022
Incredible! A genius combination of lyricism, narrative, climate science, and history of the English language. I loved it. It’s beautiful
January 6, 2022
Each night pressing east, each night drifting from surfeit, from memory of surfeit, closer to dearth.
The end of the world has come for us many times, in many ways. Whether brought about by humans, gods, or zombies, we have been telling about the end of all society since its beginning. It is lucky for us that most of those ends turn into beginnings of their own.
B.K. Fischer’s novella-in-verse Ceive is a play on the story of Noah in our time. It is not clear exactly what has killed the world, only that the protagonist must struggle with whether or not she is glad she survived to leave Sleepy Hollow and join up with a ship headed to Greenland. Alternating between poems and narrative prose tracking her journey, we are lead through all the stages of grief and the hint of rebirth. Each piece of verse can (and has in prior publication) stand on its own, but combined with the understated narrative beautifully and heartbreakingly reveals the character’s struggle, and what hope humanity may have in this new changed world.
I am no expert on poetry, but am glad whenever I find myself reading it again. It slows me down, and reminds me to really appreciate the words on the page. I am generally exhausted of the end of the world, but if I must face it again, Ceive shows how it can be done.
The end of the world has come for us many times, in many ways. Whether brought about by humans, gods, or zombies, we have been telling about the end of all society since its beginning. It is lucky for us that most of those ends turn into beginnings of their own.
B.K. Fischer’s novella-in-verse Ceive is a play on the story of Noah in our time. It is not clear exactly what has killed the world, only that the protagonist must struggle with whether or not she is glad she survived to leave Sleepy Hollow and join up with a ship headed to Greenland. Alternating between poems and narrative prose tracking her journey, we are lead through all the stages of grief and the hint of rebirth. Each piece of verse can (and has in prior publication) stand on its own, but combined with the understated narrative beautifully and heartbreakingly reveals the character’s struggle, and what hope humanity may have in this new changed world.
I am no expert on poetry, but am glad whenever I find myself reading it again. It slows me down, and reminds me to really appreciate the words on the page. I am generally exhausted of the end of the world, but if I must face it again, Ceive shows how it can be done.
August 23, 2022
An amazing book that stays with me. Prose poems interspersed with verse poems unwind a tale of an apocalyptic Noah's ark afloat on the sea in a frighteningly plausible post-flood, post-plague Earth. A must-read, because there's no way I can do justice to it in a review.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews