From the Archive: R. Flowers Rivera’s “Exegesis: A World Gone Awry”

By Alex Wexelman

Photograph of R. Flowers Rivera

I chose the poem “Exegesis: A World Gone Awry” by R. Flowers Rivera, in part, because it would have been too easy, a cop out, to go with the George Saunders interview from Columbia Journal No. 35 (Spring/Summer 2001). As the Online Archive Editor, I want to select something a curious J-STOR subscriber, trolling the back issues, might not pick on a cursory glance. I also chose the poem “Exegesis: A World Gone Awry” by R. Flowers Rivera because, from its opening line—“The abridged text of my life is a dull read.”—it commands your attention. Rivera wrote on her official website, “Growing up, I was steeped in the oral tradition,” the inflection evident in her confident prosody.  At Binghamton University, she completed a Ph.D. in English, specializing in African American literature and creative writing and cites as her influences, “my beloved grandmother, women within our community, and the history that flows through my vein as a Black woman of the South.”

The poem is resonant. The speaker is self-assured, cool, withdrawn. She and her lover play games, share a tumultuous relationship that she ends and which is told in four parts. The language is descriptive and playful. Plus, as an added bonus, Rivera challenged me, and I hope you, to look up the word sangfroid, which is a great word, and which conjures Bugs Bunny’s blasé attitude toward danger. George Saunders didn’t use any two dollar words, but you should still check out his interview, too.