The World Began With Yes

by Erica Jong

Overview

Erica Jong has never stopped writing poetry. It was her first love and it has provided inspiration for all her other books. In a dark time, she celebrates life. Her title comes from the Brazilian genius Clarice Lispector who was deeply in love with life despite many tragedies. Life challenges us to celebrate even when our very existence is threatened. Never have we needed poetry more. Jong believes that the poet sees the world in a grain of sand and eternity in a wild flower—as Blake wrote. Her work has always stressed the importance of the lives of women, women’s creativity, and self-confidence. She sees her role as a writer as inspiring future poets to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781597098465
Publisher:	Red Hen Press
Publication date:	04/16/2019
Pages:	96
Sales rank:	1,156,089
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Erica Jong is a celebrated poet, novelist & essayist with over twenty-five published books that have been influential all over the world. Her most popular novel, Fear of Flying, celebrated its 40^th anniversary in 2013. Never out of print, it has sold over thirty-five million copies in forty-two languages including Chinese and Arabic. Erica’s latest novel, Fear of Dying,was published in 2015/2016 with many publishers all over the world. Her awards include the Fernanda Pivano Award for Literature in Italy (named for the critic who introduced Ernest Hemingway, Allen Ginsberg, and Erica Jong to the Italian public), the Sigmund Freud Award in Italy, the Deauville Literary Award in France, the United Nations Award for Excellence in Literature, and Poetry Magazine’s Bess Hokin Prize (also won by Sylvia Plath and W.S. Merwin). Erica’s poetry has appeared in publications worldwide, including The New Yorker, L.A. Times, The Paris Review, Haaretz, and many more. Erica lives in New York and Connecticut with her husband and two poodles.

Read an Excerpt

Child on the Beach

The Mediterranean is black with bodies

as in the time of the Trojan Wars

when Homer sang of bloody battles

& heroes lay unburied

beneath the topless towers of Troy.

But this little boy of three

sleeps unburied on a beach.

Where is he from?

The chemical fog of Syria?

The garbage dumps of beautiful Beirut?

The chaos of civilization come undone?

He rests,

his parents lost,

his sisters drowned,

his brother thrown up on another beach . . .

What shall I do

with this dead toddler

who breaks me open to grief?

I will adopt him,

my nameless grandson,

welcome him into my shattered breast,

his death so sweet even cherubs weep

& Nereids float him in their seaweed boats . . .

Little one,

now you are mine—

sleep in my arms while I sing you this lullaby . . .

maybe you’ll awaken in a kinder world

where children don’t die at the edge of the sea.

Meanwhile, dream of peace

for this broken world.

Table of Contents

The World Began With Yes 13

The Breathing Of The World 15

Child On The Beach 16

Oracle Of Light 18

Unicorns 20

Acupuncturist 25

News 26

Blue Bird, Red Bird 27

Child's Play 28

"Be Careful Darkness" 29

Day Of Atonement 30

Brief Valentine 32

Connoisseur Of Longing 33

Hats 34

Inside Out 36

One 37

Love To His Soul 38

New Theory Of Love 40

Where The Poem Comes From- 41

Emily's Birthday 42

Emily Dickinson: A New Daguerreotype 44

Poetry Is Better Than Xanax 46

Spanking 48

Visible/Invisible 50

Why I Hate The News 52

Your Eggs 54

Writing Poetry Again 55

The Mental Traveller 65

The Danish Poet 66

What Is Love? 68

Facebook Friend 69

Not A Bot 70

On Hearing That Alice Munro Is Now A Stamp 71

The Wish Not Heard 72

Breasts 74

Dying Is Not Black 76

Almost Dying 78

Not With A Bang But A Whimper 80

The World 84

Her Death 85

Taking The Train 86

Prophet's Storm 87

Speaking With The Dead 88

Breath's End 90

Interviews

Vanessa Daou and Erica Jong on the Making of the Electronica Classic Zipless

Editorial Reviews

A forever fan and devoted student of Erica Jong’s poetry, her work has inspired me for as long as I can remember. Her newest book simmers with passion, wisdom, and joy. Enter her “red forest of love” and drink the poetry of Erica Jong—each poem ripe with life, each one a kiss, a slap awake, an embrace, a memory and reminder that lust, longing, and desire are the architects of love. Erica tells us, “plenty & poetry” are all we need, and here we have it—a “climax of language, like lovemaking, bringing peace.” Say “yes,” to this collection and let the world begin.
—Kim Dower, Former Poet Laureate of West Hollywood, Author of four books of poetry including Last Train to the Missing Planet and Sunbathing on Tyrone Power’s Grave

From the vigor of the political to the complications of religion, from the purity of the spiritual to the riot of the body, The World Began With Yes wakes us up to say, "Yes!" Jong's poems brim with language that is supple and fierce, elegant and wise—all of it creating a feast of joy. Here we have everything great poetry is meant to be.
—Linda Gray Sexton, author of Searching for Mercy Street: My Journey Back to My Mother, Anne Sexton and Half in Love: Surviving the Legacy of Suicide.

Erica Jong's new collection of poetry is, as its title suggests, both affirmative and exhilarating. Whether she is writing about her grandchildren, the loss of her mother, or an Alice Munro stamp, Jong's images are always vividly evocative. Her poems are filled with an equal awareness of the sensuous nature of life and its inevitable decline. This is the work of a poet in her prime, filled with candor and wisdom.
—Daphne Merkin

From the Publisher

02/01/2019

Poet/novelist/essayist Jong's latest poetry collection is the 26th volume she's brought forth in a long and prolific career, an achievement that well may be a marvel even to her. As she writes in "The Danish Poet": "How fascinating/ you are still/ writing poetry/ though you are no longer young/ says the Danish poet /not young herself/ & still writing." Indeed, most of the poems in this volume have this same point-and-shoot quality: nothing fancy or transcendent-aiming. There's only frank reportage on these pages and a firm embrace of life. "The World" is a case in point, a poem stripped down to an essential idea by a practiced hand: "The world rushes by/ people we loved die/ & the world does not stop/ astoundingly. We pause/ but the world/ does not stop." VERDICT Fans of this well-known author will be interested to see how well Jong gives voice to the inevitable thoughts that come with aging.—Iris S. Rosenberg, New York

Library Journal