Notes from a Polish Allotment

by Alex Rossiter

Prose, haiku, and drawings by Alex Rossiter.

“Crossing the allotment patio to wash my brushes at the outdoor sink one morning, I saw to the southeast a plane descending towards Warsaw’s Chopin airport, and remembered how I’d originally made my own way, via tarmac and boulevard, to the neighborhood where we were to live. Surrounded as I was by the enormous idea of Poland, and the slabbed expanses of its capital, I found myself unpacking a need for gardens.”

Which Alex Rossiter, in Notes from a Polish Allotment, proceeds to do across a haibun weave of prose, haiku, and pencil drawings divided between the book’s two parts: the first covering the transplanted artist’s arrival in Warsaw, the second, his discovery of the allotment gardens, a quirky Arcadian wedge of greenery in the heart of the city’s Mokotów district.

Attuned to the moods of mud, lancing of light, and shivers of vine across the seasons, and with a healthy interest in the idiosyncrasies of his fellow allotmenteers, Rossiter adopts a typological approach softened by empathic curiosity. Throughout, he seeks to locate himself while reflecting on what it means to be a foreigner sinking hands into local soil.

136 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2023

Reviews

[Malise · Rating 4 out of 5]

i read this whilst in poland & it was delightful

[Adina Weinstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

“To reanimate spent objects and reincorporate material waste into the orbit of creation is a planetary concern. Didactically, the ‘idea’ may be outlined in classrooms and boardrooms as circular. In reality, nature wastes nothing.”

Felt more like a zine than a book, which is not by any means negative. Charming. Made me feel a deep sickness inside of me that I could only attribute to missing Poland- I can already feel that I will read it again and enjoy it even more the next time.

[Ola Skalec]

„But an uncanny persistence is found in earth. In attending a park or being able to tend to a garden, earth—ziemia—persists through the alien twisting hands of trees and the smell of the mud and grass upon which games are played and dogs paraded.”

[Oskar]

This one is not quite what I expected. It's very much an equal combination of snippets of immigrant life in Poland and musings on the experience of gardening on foreign soil, while I expected it to be centred solely on the gardening. Left me wanting more and committed some immigrant-writing sins I absolutely despise, but I'd certainly like to pick up something longer by the author in the future.

[Liza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought this was lovely and beautiful, especially punctuated by the charming drawings. Very meditative and observant, and a thoughtful perspective! It made me miss Poland dearly.

[Lehan · Rating 5 out of 5]

甜蜜蜜！