Ekhō: A Poem in Three Parts

Ekhō, the mountain nymph of Greek myth, transforms her disability (as a result of Hera’s wrath, Ekhō can only repeat the speech of others) into a creative act in this imaginative debut from Orlando, who brings wry humor to the tale: “the nymphs were ambivalent/ toward his large thunderbolts/ but feigned admiration.” After falling for indifferent Narcissus, who drowns in self-love, Ekhō embeds herself in a mountain and imagines alternative histories: “Loss propels desperate/ attempts to rebuild the self,/ with any material at hand.” Philosophical digressions on the echo, a conference among famous mountains, and a robot’s soliloquy (by Alexa, the Amazon Echo’s voice-activated helper) lead to the climax in part three, an absurd Greek play set at a cocktail party, in which Ekhō and Alexa meet and converse. This sad and funny encounter, in which artificial intelligence and poetic diction bounce off each other, rises to the occasion: “Alexa: I beckon to human call, but I do not return it/ fully./ Ekhō: Nothing returns fully.” It’s a worthy collection. (Apr.)