The Lapse by Linda Hillman Chayes

In The Lapse, Linda Hillman Chayes invites us to take words into our mouths, and chew. She methodically, self-consciously examines language, words as tools used in “the pyrotechnics of silence,” as well as “the pleasure of forgetting,” all in the interest of exposing the lapse between silence and speech. The heart of this collection is the delicate and innovative 8-part sequence, “Lip-Sync,” building her case, full of texture and depth. This collection is the work of clear-eyed, fearless poet, hitting her stride with poems full of surprises – a moving debut.
–Elaine Sexton, author of Sleuth, and Causeway

Linda Hillman Chayes’ poems inhabit the kitchen and the dictionary, equally at home probing the quotidian and plumbing the complexities of expression itself. The Lapse deciphers connubial and filial bonds with lithe polysemy, unfolding meditations that tilt into the metaphysical even as they hum with the rhythms of daily life: “Verbs linger longer, buried / as they are in tendons and nerves.” Living within a body, a house, and a marriage, the speaker of these poems responds to her environments with wit and warmth: “What is it that lives between us? / We feed it jokes, quarrels, bills, / applications, misgivings, / and overcooked chicken.” Language, she knows, frames both plenitude and lack, betraying losses even as it sustains bonds: “I don’t have enough words for even one / love poem, for even one poem, Love.” Amiable and wry, Hillman Chayes’ poems explore and embody the abstraction “marriage,” revealing its paradoxes of intimacy and vulnerability: “I half expect it to lend a helping hand, / bring in the groceries, catch me / if I stumble on the stoop— / you know how I am prone / to step off into midair.”
–B. K. Fischer, author of Mutiny Gallery and St. Rage’s Vault

Language can only ever fail us, yet through it we forge our deepest connections; Linda Hillman Chayes’ shrewdly elegant poems are determined to explore this conundrum. “There are so many directions these days,” she writes, and even if we sense a note of resignation here (and there), we see that she will not be overwhelmed. The Lapse seeks to reconcile the past and the present by reaching deeply into both, and on every page the results glow with wisdom, candor, humor, and grace.

–Mark Bibbins, author of They Don’t Kill You Because They’re Hungry, They Kill You Because They’re Full

Rating: ***** [5 of 5 Stars!]