Eve Alexandra Breathes Life into Frost Commons

On the evening of October 6, award-winning poet Eve Alexandra read her work in the intimate setting of the Frost Academic Commons. The event, sponsored by the PSU Campus Bookstore, drew a modest crowd of about twenty to thirty people, including many students and faculty members. Dr. Liz Ahl began the evening by introducing the UVM English professor, with whom she attended graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh. Eve Alexandra greeted the curious listeners with a simple “hi” and a gracious smile beneath a profusion of auburn hair. She then launched into a reading that featured poems from her 2003 collection The Drowned Girl, which includes both free-verse and prose style poetry. Alexandra’s first piece of the night was “The Drowned Girl”, a prose piece that bears the title of her book. Her voice was calm as pond water, enveloping reminiscent lines like “Once upon a time, she was all escape-her long hair,/siren of copper and cinnamon, burning a comet behind her.” Even the word cunt in the poem’s final sentence sounded like honey at the bottom of a teacup.Alexandra continued with the candid “When I was Crazy,” frankly addressing the inevitable and necessary chaos of life with lines like “When I was crazy, I heard voices, but I studied very hard. /When I was crazy, I loved any bridge over a highway./ When I was crazy, I was still a good girl, but I was very, very sad.” Before beginning her next selection, she revealed that much of her work reflects a fascination with putting oneself in dangerous places in the mind. This offered a perfect segue into her next piece, “Sleeping at the Plaza,” which revealed the emptiness hidden behind the glamour and excitement of charmed but promiscuous lifestyles.The reading crested with a selection from the lengthy prose piece, “The Wake.” The subject matter was disjointed, but interwoven, remarking on the bravery of suicide in the lines “And where/would she be now? If she had said something? What do we do with the/word Help? You know this story. The clichés of mental illness. She’d be/ rooming with the crazy girl. They’d be twins in blue and red.” Alexandra’s tone, which had been generally swingy and liberated, gained a bit of gravity for this piece, and the already attentive listeners became wholly engrossed. The poet revealed that inspiration for “The Wake” was rooted in her years attending graduate school with Dr. Ahl, during which a talented writer suffered a breakdown. A tower described in the poem, the enabling tool for a plethora of suicides, is a reflection of the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning.Other particularly noteworthy pieces of the evening included the aptly titled “Rape.” Although rape poems are an arguably overdone staple of modern poetry, this professor from Vermont captured the bawdy details of a rape as plainly as “CAUTION” tape, infusing the concept with new life. Alexandra read with frankness the lines “Try to remember/his name. The water still running./Hear voices of the women next door.” The evidence of life going on around the atrocity of the rape taking place was vivid. The piece also deals with the ambiguity of rape situations. Alexandra commented along those lines, noting that very few rapes are black-and-white forced-sex issues; many of them are routine sexual encounters gone awry. This is illustrated in the lines “Later you laugh with your friends/about fucking and flooding/the floor. Your mouth is full/of kisses, of salt/and flowers. You dream/of fish, whole buildings/under water, anything but/ the word.” The word is inferably rape, an appellation that the speaker of the poem is hesitant to assign to her situation. Alexandra’s unabbreviated portrait was identifiable and certainly snagged the attention of the crowd.During a question and answer session, PSU professor Lynn Rudmin remarked that although many poets adopt a “stage” voice, Alexandra read in “her own voice.” The Vermonter used this voice to answer questions and openly share her inspirations, revealing little gap between the poet and the person. She revealed high regard toward the works of both Sylvia Plath and Adrienne Rich. Although she claimed to be influenced by the Bronte sisters, she was honest enough to compare Wuthering Heights to a “dry crust of bread.”The overall evening was a breath of fresh air delivered in the form of poetry sans pretension, proving that Eve Alexandra is nothing if not a poet who owns her words. Lucky for the rest of us, she’s willing to share them.