Canvas - by Adam Zagajewski (Paperback)

About the Book

In Canvas, a collection of sixty-one poems, Zagajewski's distinctive poetic signature is powerfully in evidence: syntax explodes, masses of detail spill from profuse catalogs, lines break in ways apt but unexpected, compressed lyrics alternate with extended tours de force. European culture proves the poet's native province and time is a recurrent metaphysical concern.

Book Synopsis

Canvas, Zagajewski's second book to appear in English, features all of this poet's distinctive traits. In these sixty-one poems, syntax explodes, masses of detail spill from profuse catalogs, lines break in ways apt but unexpected, and compressed lyrics alternate with extended riffs. European culture is the poet's native province throughout these explorations, and time is a recurrent metaphysical concern.

Review Quotes

"Zagajewski's shrewd, clear, passionate poems have a distinctive way of touching the relation of historical reality to the lives of individuals, and to art . . . [He] deserves the attention of readers accustomed to swerve away from poetry. And moreover, he is good: the unmistakable quality of the real thing." --Robert Pinsky, The New Republic

"[Though translated into] English, these are still powerful, original poems . . . [Zagajewski's] poetry, even at its most delicate, has the authenticity, the 'I've seen this, I've lived with what came of this, ' the life-as-part-of-history, that few American poets can lay claim to." --Gail Mazur, The Boston Sunday Globe

"From his poetry we learn how deeply history and the individual interact, how cruelly mass culture threatens the frail psychological construct of the self, and how deeply poetry can penetrate the gray mist of power that conceals the seams of contemporary civilization." --William Doreski, The Harvard Review

"The 'canvas' in the title of this new collection by Polish poet Zagajewski refers primarily to the artist's canvas, on which surreal images and memorable collections of dreamlike objects are created. A portrait of Europe emerges--Europe as the home of Mozart, Schumann, Chopin, Schubert, and Bruckner, of Gothic cathedrals with their 'ribs of granite, ' of philosophers like Nietzsche with his 'head like a bullet.' Zagajewski is a born phrase-maker, inventing 'tents of trees' and the 'weasels' of memory. And he wisely recognizes that the canvas can also be a shroud, because in the end everyone must swallow 'a dose of death.' Beautifully translated and recommended for all larger collections." --Library Journal

About the Author

Adam Zagajewski was born in Lvov in 1945. His books include the poetry collections Tremor (1985), Canvas (1992), and Mysticism for Beginners (1998), and the essay collections Two Cities (1995) and Another Beauty (2000). He lives in Paris and Houston, where he teaches at the University of Houston.

Renata Gorczynski is an essayist, a literary critic, and a teacher of journalism. She lives in Gdynia, Poland.

Benjamin Ivry is a poet ("Paradise for the Portuguese Queen"), biographer (of Ravel, Poulenc, and Rimbaud), and translator.

C. K. Williams has been awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for his poetry. He teaches at Princeton University.