Our friend and collaborator Martin Nawrath (born 1968) published his first poetry collection, Encounters, last year in the Brno publishing house Druhé město – Martin Reiner. The collection contains more than sixty poems, accompanied by delicate ink illustrations by the painter Jan Pražan; I have selected a total of twelve poems from it as a sample for the PILGRIM website. The themes of Martin's poetry are the fragile beauty of the world, the fascination of its…
Tag: Poetry
Remember the Wren: about a new poem by Radek Štěpánek
“This is the song of the circle. Remember it and take it to the people, so that they may learn it and find their place in it, which has been there since the beginning of time, …” — Radek Štěpánek The epic composition by poet and environmentalist Radek Štěpánek, Pamatuj na wřezlíka, in a sense, completes his previous efforts in the field of environmental poetry, the establishment of which…
Luděk Čertík: Before We Were People, We Were Land (On the Poetry of the First North American Peoples)
Now make room in your mouth grassgrassgrass Layli Long Soldier The First Nations of North America practiced poetry long before the arrival of white settlers. Their languages, in the words of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natalie Diaz (Mohawk), represent “the foundation of the American poetic lexicon.” But what is the role of indigenous poets today? And what exactly do we mean by the generalization of the poetry of the first or original…
Luděk Čertík: The Last Wild Embrace (poems)
An example from the upcoming collection by Luďek Čertík, The Last Wild Embrace. * the parrots were on edge since morning; they knew that a strong storm and storm would come from the coast, that is wind and rain, that is lightning and thunder and sometimes hail and falling branches, trees and something more, always something more that doesn't fit into…
Ten poems by Radek Štěpánek
Radek Štěpánek (*1986), poet, editor, fisherman. He was born in Prachatice, and today lives with his wife, poet Tereza Bínová, and their daughter in Brno – Bystrice. He studied media studies and journalism at Masaryk University in Brno and later received a master's degree in Environmental Humanities there. He is considered a central figure in Czech environmental poetry; he has published a total of nine poetry collections. He works as an editor at the Brno-based Host publishing house. His…
Wendell Berry
Wendell Erdman Berry (born 1934) is a prominent American writer, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural and social critic, and farmer. He lives in Kentucky near his birthplace, where he has run a farm for more than 40 years. As a young man, he lived for a time in California, Europe, and New York, and taught at the University of Kentucky for many years, but eventually decided…
Joy Harjo: Drinking Deeply What Cannot Be Drinked Away (poems)
“Imagining the spirit of poetry is like imagining the shape and size of a hunch. It is a kind of awakening light; it is the full-grown spirit of an ancestor who has accompanied me since the beginning, or a bear or a hummingbird. It is a hundred horses galloping across a landscape in a soft mist, or a woman undressing in the glow of a fire before her beloved. It is none of the above. It transcends all imaginable.” Joy Harjo, Crazy Brave…
Luděk Čertík: Three poems
Luděk Čertík (born 1989 in České Budějovice) studied film history and environmental studies; he works as a program director at the Prague Short Film Festival. He occasionally writes and lectures about film, mainly the work of American-born Terrence Malick, but also about artistic nature films, and also translates and writes poetry. He has published in the magazines Film a Doba, Sedmá generace, Universum. He is a member of…