PS: Book of Eve

about that snake: it was beautiful,
truly
        it was beautiful
coiled on the cheek
of rock in early sun.
A garden snake, harmless therefore.
Bronze, I recall, frieze
of diamonds or black
down its sides or back
like great-uncle Sandy’s
tartan socks.
One of life’s lords,
Granddad wrestled
topsoil on his acre
of paradise. Beyond cedars
ocean sparkled. Stairs
descended to the first bright
beach of the world. Tide rising
or falling. It glittered
its tongue at me
and I will never forget
how it took me in, then
sashayed off
into the rough
where the berries hung.

by Beverley Bie Brahic

‘PS: Book of Eve’ is copyright © Beverley Bie Brahic, 2012. It is reprinted from White Sheets by permission of CB editions.

Notes from CB editions:

Beverley Bie Brahic is a poet and translator who lives in Paris and Stanford, California. Her translations of selected poems by Francis Ponge (Unfinished Ode to Mud, 2008; shortlisted for the 2009 Popescu Prize for European poetry in translation) and by Apollinaire (The Little Auto, 2012) have also been published by CBe. About White Sheets – which was shortlisted for the 2012 Forward Prize – Eavan Boland has written: ‘This is a book of craft, music and a collected vision of life that provides pleasure on every page.’ See more details about the book, as well as Brahic’s other work, at this page on the CB editions website. On this page you can also read further selections from White Sheets – just click on the link to the pdf on the left-hand side of the page.

CB editions publishes no more than six books a year, mainly poetry and short fiction and including work in translation. Since 2008 its poetry titles have twice won the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize and have twice been shortlisted for both the Forward Prize and the Forward First Collection Prize. In 2011 CBe put on Free Verse, a one-day book fair for poetry publishers to show their work and sell direct to the public; the event was repeated in September 2012 with over 50 publishers taking part. Find out more about the publisher from the website, where you can also sign up to the CB editions mailing list, or ‘like’ the publisher on Facebook to keep up-to-date with its activities.

Copyright information: please note that the copyrights of all the poems displayed on the website and sent out on the mailing list are held by the respective authors, translators or estates, and no work should be reproduced without first gaining permission from the individual publishers.