Magnetic Point Selected Poems [Paperback]

One of Poland's greatest living poetsnow in English at lastRyszard Krynicki was born in 1943 in a Nazi labor camp, the son of Polish slave laborers. His 1969 volume,Master of luminous detail and a well-turned phrase, Krynickis poems, even the exceedingly short, rarely fail to move us.Master of luminous detail and a well-turned phrase, Krynickis poems, even the exceedingly short, rarely fail to move us.Ryszard Krynicki lives with six cats, and I feel he must have captured some of the magic of those lithe creatures in his poetry. Krynicki must look into people the way that cats do. He must dream the way that cats see. Though his short poems are my favorites, his longer works are punctuated with lyrical acuity. This collected translation is a gift and I am blessed to have read it.Krynickis work is greatly compactit resists what Herbert called gibberish from the tribune black newspaper froth, and aspires to a kind of sacred speech.A revelation. And a treasure. I thought I 'd known most of the current Polish poets - but here was a glaring omission. He writes with an undercurrent of horror, and yet affirms the sacred, making me believe in the power of poetry to redeem us. As he writes, not without some irony, 'the world still exists.' The translations are superb.Part Issa haiku, part mystic speech, these delicate poems come from a time when men and women died for poetry.Part Issa haiku, part mystic speech, these delicate poems come from a time when men and women died for poetry. I almost feel unworthy of them, having never known the wall of fire and charred darkness of war. Please don't give these terse, clean poems short shrift - the little flames of purgatory have produced them.Clear water knapped to obsidian sharpness - this is the quality of Ryszard Krynicki's poems. Krynicki plays on his almost-impossible instrument a human music unheard elsewhere. Within its notes: personal history; politics; the earth's beings, salts, and resins; friendships lch