Powerful New work by a modern master. You must listen, listen, listen. Tired springs breathe under water. At four in the morningthe last, lonely bolt of lightning scribbles something quickly in the sky. It says "No." Or "Never. "Or "Take courage, the fire's not dead." -from "The Last Storm" Mysticism for Beginners is the third and most beautiful of Adam Zagajewski's collections to appear in English. The poems are about nature, history, the life of cities, the transformations of art, the spiritual essence of everyday life. Their remarkable staying power derives from the gentle meditative authority of Zagajewski's voice, here expertly rered into English by Clare Cavanagh. Zagajewski's committed, compassionate poems offer access to the mysteries at the heart of experience.
Author
Adam Zagajewski was a Polish poet, novelist, translator and essayist. He was awarded the 2004 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. The Zagajeski family was expelled from Lwów by the Ukrainians to central Poland in 1945. In 1982 he emigrated to Paris, but in 2002 he returned to Poland, and now resides in Kraków. His poem "Try To Praise The Mutilated World", printed in The New Yorker, became famous after the 9/11 attacks. He is considered a leading poet of the Generation of '68, or Polish New Wave (Polish: Nowa fala), and one of Poland's most prominent contemporary poets. Source: wikipedia.com
