In a Polish village, a young man watches an old man trip and fall down a flight of stairs. From this singular event arises a cascade of memories, regrets, and longings: the buried sensations of a whole lifetime, condensed and released. We hear of life during occupation, the scarcities of a childhood lived under the sign of war—and fragments of a home’s sounds and scents (the private speech of mothers and fathers, the treasures of coffee, raisins, almonds, and plums). There ar...
Frank, acute, and intimate poems of human loss, resilience, and love – detective poem, historical hopscotch, love story“A truly lyrical longing for the world to be transformed.”—Polish Book InstituteRóżycki collects moments of illumination – a cat dashing out of a window and "feral sun" streaking in, a body planting itself in the ground like rhubarb and flowering. He collects and collects, opens a crack, and clutches a shrapnel of epiphany.Tomasz Różycki's To the Letter follo...