Journals Showcase (Witryna Czasopism.pl)

For the third time in recent months I am writing about Baczewski’s prose and about Baczewski himself, and I am beginning to worry if maybe I took “third time’s the charm” a bit too literally to heart. But no, I console myself, if you take into consideration Baczewski’s essay about book-burning, which I mentioned when discussing one of the issues of “FA-art”, then it turns out it’s the fourth time that I will be talking about the author of 5 Poems. This could be an even bigger worry then – certain people may start spreading rumors in dark corners, talk behind my back, drag my good name through the mud, curse and hurl abuse – what’s his deal with this Baczewski? Do they drink vodka together, or email each other, or maybe they’re related and this is literary nepotism at its finest, or maybe they watch DVDs together and then go for long walks admiring the sunsets? And it’s not true, everything must be denied and explained that no such connections and undue familiarity, or purported ties of kinship between Wysocki and Baczewski exist. Though it would be fun to have uncle Marek Krystian Emanuel, who not only is a fab poet/prose-writer/literary critic and columnist, he even gets prizes from time to time (too rarely, if I may say so).

There are magazines about which I don’t write for “Showcase“ (“Witryna”), because either I can’t find any worthwhile substance in them, or I’m not amused by the selections of the same old, sometimes shuffled, but always full of mutual praise names. Among such periodicals I’d include “Topos”, “Fraza”, “Kwartalnik Artystyczny”, “Zeszyty Literackie” (the last two: their standards can be high, the names are famous, but still unfortunately, the same), from time to time “Twórczość”, and yes, also “Nowa Okolica Poetów” (Poets’ New Neighborhood). I do browse through all of them regularly, but only a few issues are worthy of purchasing them at Empik. I confess without being tortured, if the Nowa Okolica Poetów 2007 Prize hadn’t gone to Marek Krystian Emanuel Baczewski, you would not have had, my gentle audience, the pleasure of reading now about this periodical from Rzeszów. Luckily, it did come to pass, and now I can kill two birds with one stone – while writing about prize-winning Baczewski, I will also add a few words about other articles included in “NOP” (25/2007). This way, one bit of news will be good, and the rest – bad.

This issue of “NOP” is not monographic, though you could say that its main theme and its leading character is Baczewski – out of 250 pages, 60 are dedicated to materials either by him or about him. Among them we can find several short articles about the honored by NOP volume Morze i inne morza (The Sea and Other Seas), an interview with the prize-winning poet conducted by Jacek Durski, and most importantly – superb samples of the author’s work for every taste, shape and size – poems, short prose, a longer story, a critical commentary and an essay. Let’s begin with the short prose pieces, of which I’ve been a fan for a long time. An essential characteristic of Baczewski’s writing style – it seems to me – is the ability to use aphorisms and golden proverbs. What’s more – such sentences come to him with unparalleled ease. Some short pieces, or the excellent though not easy essay War and Beauty (Wojna i piękno) give the impression of being constructed exclusively of bon mots and thoughts if not lofty, then certainly very important. Baczewski, with a rarely seen skill, moves from one aspect to another, from a generalization to a surprising, witty point.

His stories live on the border of prose, poetry, essay, autobiography, fairy tale and literary impression, sometimes with elements of quasi-theological reflections. Such microscopic pieces can hold truly many treasures. Is it possible to resist this really simple and obvious (how come I never thought of it?), yet sophisticated musings about the rain (“Very surprising that no mystic found fame by persistently gazing at the cloudy sky. If you’re ever asked for an example of a perfect dread, say this – not to be born out of fear of getting soaked in the rain.”), emptiness (“If in a ladder on which we are climbing up, a step is missing, it turns out that missing step is the only step we can be certain of. Only there can we find a solid footing for emptiness. We know for sure the missing step can’t support us, but can we be equally certain of the existing steps?”), thoughts (“I think about a chair, therefore I am? Rubbish. I think about a chair, therefore the chair is.”), funeral mourning (“And what if we mourn not the departed, but our own selves, because we lost a loved one?”)? No, you can’t resist that. My confession makes me blush, but I will say it once again: I find Baczewski irresistible.

Those still not convinced I’m sending to a short piece Miserable World (Marny Świat), whose main character – Dr. Faust (“our old friend”) ends up in a supermarket – “Mephisto transports Dr. Faust into our modern reality, leads the good doctor to a hypermarket, pushes a Diamond Visa card into his pocket and says: Have a blast!” In the story we learn what ends up in Faust’s shopping cart, why despite everything, he’s still not satisfied with the present reality, and which roads lead to Hell these days. A longer story titled I, two camels (Ja, dwa wielbłądy) is simply terrific – its hero and first-person narrator is a two-hump camel, who because of the enforced law, is considered two persons in one body. This legislative blunder leads to many more or less humorous situations, but most of all, drives our hero to despair and makes him spend many hours pondering the nature of the world. The monologue of a hurt by the system philosophizing camel can be really tricky at times (“If it’s true what theologists say – that to err is human – then to aberr is camelian. This is the reason why it’s the camel’s nature to carry errant humans.”) – what more could you want? Another part worth mentioning is when the camel fighting for his rights is attacked by the conservative press, such as “Fundamentalism Weekly”

And this is just the beginning of “all things Baczewski” in this issue. We also have short texts by Jacek Napiórkowski (the chief editor of “NOP”), Bohdan Zadura, Anna Kałuża and Alina Świeściak about the prize-winning poetry volume. We have the already-mentioned interview with Baczewski himself From Works I Respect, I Expect Reflections on My Own Self (Od książek, które szanuję, oczekuję refleksji na mój temat), which is not entirely an interview but more of a friendly chat accompanied by a bottle of Metaxa, when you’re not expected to say much, and if you do – you need to think before you speak. Of course I refer here to Jacek Durski, whose too long, supposedly amusing and supposedly friendly, supposedly full of deep thoughts and life experiences, but really rather childish monologues are tiring and irritating. We also have an excellent essay about the beauty of war, avant-garde poetry, about Apollinaire, Rimbaud and Szwejk, as well as an interesting intro by Baczewski to several poems penned by Krystyna Myszkiewicz (“the language of Myszkiewicz is like a woman, who flirts with strange men to keep convincing herself over and over that she loves her own husband.”) There’s a lot to choose from and aficionados of good literature should be satisfied with the selection.

That is, as long as they don’t reach for the works of other authors included in the magazine. It’s enough to try an essay by Eryk Ostrowski about – and here I’m quoting the sub header – Communion Poetry of Zofia Zarębianka to ascertain an issue, which after reading Baczewski’s War and Beauty slipped our mind, that an artful essay is not easy to compose and many lose this literary battle. Ostrowski goes down at the title and stays down till the very end. He gives us an example of self-serving, lopsided, pseudo-metaphysical essay about poetry, which itself deserves less than sublime descriptions. Eryk Ostrowski writes, “Tonight I once again read Zofia Zarębianka’s new poems from the Jerusalem Was Destroyed volume. In the background Górecki’s Third Symphony was playing, and inside myself Silence finally grew.” When it comes to the interpretation of Zarębianka’s poetry, Ostrowski is equally full of bravura. Here are a few examples: “The poetry of Zofia Zarębianka situates itself opposite such a desecrated and characteristic shape of many spiritual experiences.”; “Let’s add that these are books written in a beautiful style, and though they are of academic standing, they have nothing in common with the Polish philology jargon so incomprehensible to most readers,”; “After reading Sky in Black (Niebo w czerni) one can ask himself a question – what’s next? According to my assumptions, the Spirit became revealed. Poems from the volume Jerusalem Was Destroyed are naked in their truth.” Eryk Ostrowski, in addition to Zarębianka, also lists other “great” Polish poetesses, among them Ludmiła Marjańska, Marianna Bocian, Joanna Pollakówna, Joanna Salamon, Anna Kamieńska, Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna. He invites us to read their works.

Wysocki, on the other hand, invites you to a poetry corner. Provoked by Ostrowski’s essay, I decided to begin with the poetry by the “great Zofia Zarębianka”. I selected for you a short, untitled poem, without which – as prompted by Ostrowski – it’s impossible “to understand the poetic intention in her new volume”. I quote:

Between

An orchid

in a bud

and

The Death

of an orchid

eternity

happens

and

disappears

vanishes

Even without any further suggestions from Ostrowski (as an aside, his children’s book How The Turtle Amber Was Searching For a Home – Jak żółw Bursztynek szukał domu – has just been released by the publishing house Skrzat) in the discussed here issue of “NOP” I managed to find three other poets, whose pieces of work should make us question the criteria of poetry selection employed by the editors. Let’s hear from the authors themselves.

Grzegorz Woźniak and his poem Hope (Nadzieja):

Standing still landscape, crumbled by prayer,

Whisper of hope closed in a bud of innocent palms…

Cathedral out of tears built.

It’s time, blossoms of faded godliness

Yes, this is the end,

Everything faded…

Altar out of tears laid

Opening the gates of heaves?

Andrzej Mazur and a fragment of his Dance of a Black Crane (Taniec czarnego żurawia):

How do we differ from a black crane

telling a story – in a dance – about the mysteries of nature

and its secret unions

radiating like the sun and the moon?

And because I don’t want to discriminate against the fairer sex, here’s Małgorzata Gołąbek with a fragment from her poem with an amazing title – Kurt Cobain Sings (Kurt Cobain śpiewa):

Kurt sings softly,

it’s just an instant

Before he blew out his exploding head

Like a child demanding attention

Shouting like an army of forgotten boys

Leaving the hall you already forgot them

Only a guitar on a dirty floor

Vibrates when jostled. Nobody will know

What it asked for between the notes.

And since we are in the midst of poetic descriptions, here’s a short note from The Notes from the Outskirts by Grzegorz Kociuba. The Notes… consists of more than 20 pages of excerpts from Kociuba’s personal diary, which is worth taking a look for its interesting opinions about Kant, Nietzsche, current politics and postmodernism. I was particularly thrilled by a story where Kociuba for the umpteenth time comes to visit the home of Krzysztof Karasek: “The host had just taken a bath and he came out to receive me with nothing but a towel around his waist covering his unmentionables. When he dried his unruly hair, put on a pair of culottes and a t-shirt, found his sandals and we set out in search of spring rolls, bollocks, beer and wine.”

There was supposed to be one good news and the rest bad, but I think that even those provocative comments will invite new readers to consider this issue of “NOP”. Because there’s nothing unbecoming in reading poetry while bursting out with impetuous, hysterical laughter, is there?

Grzegorz Wysocki
Translated by Anna Etmańska

Discussed journals: Czas Kultury