I swim up the still water of staircases holding my breath. Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2007. Please try again. "My Soviet Union is an intelligent, enigmatic read. And my former anxiety’s dangers. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Once, the cemetery plugged a village; now the patch of old trees looked disproportionately small next to the densely-populated apartment buildings. I don't know, I am not a historian, it's not up to me to conclude everything. There was a problem loading your book clubs. Smelted, not carved. Michael Dumanis's My Soviet Union is relentless, in all the best ways. Тупат злога, чужога. A sound of destruction, a roar of disaster, Reckless decisions and riots all around, Nobody figured what would be thereafter. Besides, they're riotously funny.”, —S. Dumanis is a poet we need badly, who brings to every line both a respect for dailiness and a near absolute imaginative fidelity. "―Publishers Weekly "Whistling through the graveyard of atrocities large and small, Michael Dumanis's Juniper Prize-winning first book My Soviet Union leaps deftly among its personae, dictions, and poetic styles, always testing the capacity of its linguistic inventiveness to contend with the facts of capital-H History. Review a Poem Then post a Poem All types of Poetry The Soviet Union All Forums Review a Poem Then post a Poem All types of Poetry The Soviet Union: with All types of Poetry Author: The world knows everything about Stalingrad but nothing about the camps. I don't think I've read a more concise recent history of the former Soviet Union. From the top of a bunkbed on the sixth floor, I’d sense human movement in the outside dark, in a DNA-like ribbon each human link was—a swollen mouth of pain. now turn against on each others; The Exclusion Zone?). He died of an intestinal obstruction in the spring of 1944 in the Kruglitsa corrective labor camp in the Arkhangelsk region. I was not in the battle for Stalingrad; I did not take Berlin. Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2013. The school hallways were brightly lit while the bulbs inside the apartment entrance were always out and the staircases stood in the dark like still water. Born near Sluck, Belarus, on December 3, 1907, Ryhor Krushyna [pseud. Michael Dumanis's My Soviet Union is relentless, in all the best ways. Did you hear that sound A sound of destruction a roar of disaster Reckless decisions and riots all around . It included some well-crafted reportage, full of subtle observations, wit, and brilliance. Where is the truth of Russia, at the Victory Parade on Red Square or in the country of the zek, which does not exist in the atlas? I did not arrive in Russia via Intourist and did not cross the Polish border in the dark of night; I was a tourist of a third, special sort. In the poetry field, Ihar Kazak has recently been included in the anthology Shadow and Light: 2017 Savant Poetry Anthology, and was awarded the Gabo Prize for Translation of Poetry for 2018. They were sent directly from the border post to prison and from there to a labor camp, where I met him. "―Mark Doty "Michael Dumanis's My Soviet Union is a book in which history meets compassion, in which bleak nostalgia meets a confused and beautiful present. The clinic took no appointments—first come, first serve. I did not need to travel to Russia—it came to me. Michael Dumanis was born in the former Soviet Union and lived there until his parents were granted political asylum in the United States. І былая трывога. Is it the Stalin Line? I too am a mother and I wipe blood from the snow with a public bus ticket. --Mark Doty. No prominent Russian leader is left un-pilloried, no Soviet ideologue left in quiet repose. I bought this book for a poetry course I was taking in 2008 with James Allen Hall (author of Now You're the Enemy) and fell completely in love with it. I saw it. What is without a stroke? could be honey could be toxin. The poems take your breath away, drag you across the rocks, and you're gasping for air and rushing through each poem like your eyes can't get enough. Crashing and clashing at the doorstep. Enter your email address to subscribe to our daily poetry posts. This is her fourth collection of humorous verse, following Pets of the Great Dictators & Other Works (2006), Cheese Pirates: Humorous Rhymes for Adult Children (2011), and Make Marzipan, not War: Crazy rhymes for crazy times (2013), all of them published by Scarith Books. Гэта здань уначы I see a large square planted with the black wheat of police truncheons thrashing in the snowstorm. When the younger son grew up and became convinced that there was little hope of a revolution in Biała-Podlaska, he arranged with the peasants on the border to take him to the Soviet side. I run to the door in the dark, This poem has not been translated into any other language yet. I did not choose my route; the Soviet regime decreed it. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window), Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), 'To Terror’s Followers' by Daniel Magdalen, ‘Shooting Star’ and Other Poetry by Shari Jo LeKane, The Aeneid, Book I, Lines 1-50: A Rhyming Translation by Len Krisak, ‘Poem for the Second Inauguration of President Donald J. Trump’ by Joseph Charles MacKenzie, ‘Perfectionist Inclined’ and Other Poetry by Lynn Kong, Poetry Challenge: 'My country used to be... ', Ekphrastic Contest: Write a Poem on This Photograph, The Society of Classical Poets 2021 Poetry Competition, Review: Wolfe and Other Poems by Donald Mace Williams, Wundor Editions, 2017, Essay: ‘Portrait of a Millennial Art Student’ by Sally Cook, On Troublemakers: Two Translations from Phaedrus, by Terry L. Norton, The Rebirth of Epic: A Review of James Sale’s, Understanding Bad Poetry: The Verse of William Topaz McGonagall, A Poem on Merriam-Webster Dictionary Changing the Definition of, 'Why Tens of Millions Support President Trump' by Mark F. Stone. I own two copies, one for beating up and underlining and one for lending out to people. The literary Internet’s most important stories, every day. We do not know the fate of these people. Anyway, it's a swinging for the fence book, and I'm enjoying that. There’s my grandmother telling stories about the war. "―Boston Review, "My Soviet Union is a remarkable album of dark vaudeville and assured verbal performances. I remember a young nurse in a camp infirmary. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. _ If some body called some-body through dense rye And some body embraced some body -What from him you take? The air smells with mothers: their perfume, their hair spray. “Marx wrote that ‘History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.’ He failed to note that, with the right person, it can come around a third time....as doggerel. Ice debris circle the Palace of the Republic. by Susan Jarvis Bryant, A Poem on Voter Fraud: 'God Knows!' Translated by Ihar Kazak. Адчыняю—нікога. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. I have no illusions; I saw underground Russia. At the time when the wonderful poem was created I lived rather far from Byelorussia (in Polar Siberia), yet my mood was precisely the same too often… Thus, it’s really tragic to witness now that so many omnipresent left voters are doing all they can to resurrect in their free countries the dreadful visions of the Soviet past. NOTE: The Society considers this page, where your poetry resides, to be your residence as well, where you may invite family, friends, and others to visit. Evidently, we must take these things together in their entirety and interconnection. I look out of the window to see what’s going on at the Palace of the Republic, but I have to look through the darkness of Rembrandt first. —S. Read “Self-Portrait with Madonna on Pravda Avenue” from Valzhyna Mort’s new collection. Mothers live inside concrete carpets of light. A very interesting piece of poetry...thanks for sharing. The effect of this pas de deux is sublime. This is why we do not build barns any more. Winter’s ice debris is magnetized by the Palace of the Republic, a gray planet that commands the rings of snowstorms. The spirits of Joseph Cornell, Mayakovsky, and Buster Keaton seem to ventriloquize the earthly, troublesome body of one Michael Dumanis, a haunted citizen born in a country that no longer exists, standing before us in a confluence of phrases that are themselves a sort of nation: crazed, American, beautiful, a giddy torrent of comedy and sorrow." Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in. Let my mother hear the creaking. Once again the ravens fly in sight Vampires require fresh blood. He assembles them into a grand union. 114 Pages, 32 Illustrations by Christine M. Hassenstab A long sentence, yes, but so was my apartment building, stretching for two bus stops, twelve entrances long and eleven floors high. At the door it seems I hear. In the city of Biała-Podlaska, a Jew had a stall where he sold soda water. But about ten to fifteen percent of Jewish youth were under the sway of communism. That alone deserves a 10. From Journey Into the Land of the Zeks and Back by Julius Margolin. And, more often, more. Before that achievement, the poet had to leave his homeland, endure life in forced labor camps in Germany during the war, and to become a displaced person in post-war Europe prior to coming to the United States. I had planned to travel to the Soviet Union long before the start of World War II. ... She has received the Lannan Foundation Fellowship, the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry, the Amy Clampitt Residency, the Gulf Coast Prize in Translation, and the Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award. GW62. The literary Internet’s most important stories, every day. Margolin, who was not a citizen of the USSR, had only a residence permit.] All information has been reproduced here for educational and informational purposes to benefit site visitors, and is provided at no charge... Recite this poem (upload your own video or voice file). What other stories can there be in a hero-city? Ours was the second entrance and I wasn’t allowed to walk past the third. The cleaner the school in the morning, the sicker my stomach would turn. School’s lit up corridors are washed with chlorine. The Madonna’s face is white without a single stroke visible on it. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Currere, currere! The art teacher wants us to be moved. Some winters are like being inside the static of a TV channel that has stopped showing the news. A type of torture practiced by the employees of the Palace of the Republic is called a corridor. The blocks were arranged in a paisley pattern; three schools stood lined up in the kitchen window like three military divisions. Once again I hear a bark, Thousands of windows light up transforming concrete panel blocks into the hanging laundry of light, mothers lean over the stoves, the night sky reflects the glow of electricity. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Dumanis is a poet we need badly, who brings to every line both a respect for dailiness and a near absolute imaginative fidelity. But my grandmother made her living sowing dresses simple as two plus two and most of my clothes are handmade. And, more often, more."--D. The Communist Party was illegal in Poland. I wouldn't be so despondent though about your country.

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