Adam Wiedemann

(Polish) Poetry after Różewicz

Tadeusz Różewicz.

I proselytize for Tadeusz Różewicz (1921–2014) and his poetic legacy as a new convert, not with unique insight into his importance or his poetics. That I leave to the eleven Polish poets sampled here (and several translators), who can testify better than I can.

Różewicz and purity

Tadeusz Różewicz is the master of purifying poetry. When I read him, I wonder, why is it I like all this filth that sticks to me. Purity, though it seems simpler, in fact incapacitates; it’s hard to shape something with it. Różewicz shapes his sculptures with filth, then washes and smoothens until they look cast in bronze. Conversely Miłosz turns every purity into the purest shit. Must you always combine Miłosz with Różewicz? Yes.

Tadeusz Różewicz is the master. I read, I wonder, it sticks. Always? 

Różewicz is. I read for filth.

Three Poems by Adam Wiedemann (b. 1967)

Mineral Water[1]
for Tadeusz Różewicz

sand

clay

gravel

 

variegated clay

 

sand

gravel

 

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