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LOVE AND DEATH—BOTH ON HOLD
The Poetic Narrative of a Nightmare
The nearly 100 linked but independent poems in No no the saddest form a narrative of a nightmarish, defining episode in the poet’s life. A few poems establish a strong romantic and loving relationship between the poet and his wife, Lynn. This young marriage is interrupted by what appears first as a headache experienced in a motel room. It’s more than a headache; it’s the onset of tragedy.
Aneurysm, brain surgery, coma. It becomes inescapable that this woman is lost, though she does not die. An ironic, complicated blessing is that Lynn is well along in pregnancy when this brain bleed strikes, and her body continues to nourish and protect the baby in her womb. Her body (if not her mind) gives birth to a healthy boy.
The woman emerges from the coma, only to be severely, severely brain damaged. Eventually she dies, but not before her husband has lived through fear and waiting, grief and anger, sexual longing and dreams that won’t go away.
In the nearly twenty-five years that have passed since Lynn’s aneurysm, brain surgery and other treatment methods have improved, and now more people survive such trauma. However, the epidemic of various kinds of brain problems has not diminished; if anything, it is even more severe because of motorcycle accidents, alzheimer’s, increased longevity, and other factors.
No no the saddest explores the questions of what it is to be human and have consciousness, to be alive rather than dead or somewhere in between life and death, to be moral and responsible, and how to survive, both physically and emotionally, in a difficult world.
About the Author. Alan Bern is Special Services Coordinator at Berkeley Public Library. He has been a youth librarian, an English and creative writing instructor, and a fine printer and designer. He lives with his wife in Berkeley, California.
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