The World Shared: Poems

by Dariusz Sośnicki, Piotr Florczyk (Translation), Boris Dralyuk (Translation)

Dariusz Sosnicki's poems open our eyes to the sublime just beneath the surface of the mundane: a train carrying children away from their parents for summer vacation turns into a ravenous monster; a meal at a Chinese restaurant inspires a surreal journey through the zodiac; a malfunctioning printer is a reminder of the ghosts that haunt us no matter where we find ourselves.

Among the perpetrators and victims,
buzzed or wasted to the bone,
gliding without their blinkers on
in the ruts of the national fate—they're not at home.

Dariusz Sosnicki is an award-winning poet, essayist, and editor in Poland.

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Paperback

First published June 10, 2014

Reviews

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thaw. Oasis of rotten grass, of concrete; puddles.
A dirty snowman in the neighbor's garden. In front of the house,
the neighbor himself: a shadow in overalls, chewed up by his wife,
three children, moths and booze.

Which way? Yesterday's footprints have turned into ponds.
A rock strolls around the compost—seeking a passage
to the warmer side, peeking at suspicious spots.
The wet cell sets on the shoulders

and neck. No glitches: sudden flash, motion.
The slow gestures of branches and, just above the acacia's peak,
heavily hanging clouds only complete the minor key.
The condition after a stroke of nostalgia in the brain.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

The images that parade past us everyday; the way they haunt our existence long after we have passed them by; how these images connect us on a deeper level. The poetry of Dariusz Sośnicki is deceitfully 'conversational' in nature: but as we look at what he is saying we are forced to look at these images again - trying to decipher what it means to exist in the now and here.