Tikkun Olam & Other Poems
Tikkun Olam & Other Poems, Second, Expanded Edition er en diktsamling av den amerikanske lyrikeren Leo Yankevich som kom ut på forlaget til redaktøren Greg Johnson, nemlig Counter-Currents Publishing i en ny innbundet andreutgave i 2012. Forordet er skrevet av E. M. Schorb. Yankevich har gitt ut flere lyrikkbøker tidligere og er en dikter med et sterkt tilvære på internettet. Dikterens bakgrunn har vært avgjørende for hans vis å dikte på og ikke minst hans emner, da han vokste opp i en katolsk irsk-polsk familie i USA, før han som en del av sine studier flyttet til et kommunistisk Polen på 1980-tallet, noe som skulle vise seg å bli hans hjemsted for godt. Diktene kretser i store trekk rundt en øst-europeisk opplevelse av livet under kommunismen fra den spede starten i 1917 og frem til i dag, og er et manende rop om at også disse ofrene fortjener å minnes. Dikterens samfunnskritiske og tradisjonelt katolske perspektiv er tilstedeværende gjennom hele diktsamlingen, enten det gjelder de gjelder de grufulle drapene på tsar Nikolai II og hans familie utført av jødiske bolsjeviker, eller USAs invasjon av Irak i nyere tid.
Fra bokens innside
Leo Yankevich’s Tikkun Olam is both devastating and heroic. The poems devastate with their unflinching depiction of the horror of the last one hundred years—the murders, the political lies, the cultural debasement, the degradation of European identity—and at the same time they are heroic in their open accusation of the force that ultimately lies behind it all: the insidious, self-serving impulse to “mend the world” in accordance with an anti-Western agenda. Yankevich’s book is unsparing in its vividness, but difficult to put down. He bravely directs our gaze at the infection that is killing us, and he does not allow us the comfortable option of turning away in forgetfulness." — Joseph S. Salemi, Editor, Trinacria
“Leo Yankevich’s rich formalist poetry sings while it mourns. His poems bring us face to face with powerful and provocative images from more than one of those darkest of modern times–times when a terrible inhumanity was unleashed upon a culture, a folk, a Heimat. In tones both eloquent and raw, it asks of its readers no more and no less than what is regarded as the sacred duty of all those who survive: Remember. Do not let this be forgotten. This too happened. Yankevich, like Percy Shelley and Roy Campbell before him, is a courageously outspoken poet, and one who is destined to be remembered as an important classic long after his politically-correct contemporaries have forever fallen out of popular, and poetic, favor.” — Juleigh Howard-Hobson, author of Somer & Other Poems
Innhold
- Part One
- 1. Tikkun Olam 5
- 2. Moscow, 1928 6
- 3. Holodomor, 1932–33 7
- 4. Red Star, 1933 8
- 5. Barcelona, 1936 9
- 6. Naftaly Aronovich Frenkel 10
- 7. Kolyma, 1937 13
- 8. Lorca’s Death 14
- Part Two
- 9. Neighbors, Eastern Poland, 1940 17
- 10. December, 1942 18
- 11. Vengeance is Mine, Says the Lord, 1943 20
- 12. With Blood on his Hands, Commissar Y. Raichman Ponders the Forest of the Dead at Katyn, 1943 21
- 13. Koniuchy, Eastern Poland, 1944 22
- 14. Saint Bartholomew’s Church 23
- 15. Gleiwitz, 1945 25
- 16. Somewhere over Germany, 1945 26
- 17. Veteran’s Hospital 27
- Part Three
- 18. After the Explusions 31
- 19. Ezra Pound Enters the Tent 32
- 20. Dissident, 1962 33
- 21. Poland, New Year’s Day, 1982 34
- 22. A Hater Learns About Love 35
- 23. The Loneliest Man 36
- 24. The Death of Communism 38
- 25. Bukovina, 1989 41
- Part Four
- 26. Sarajevo Sonnet 43
- 27. Draza Bregovich 44
- 28. Epiphany 45
- 29. Elegy 46
- 30. Butugychag 47
- 31. Gulag Burial Marker 48
- 32. The Abandoned Station 49
- 33. The Last Silesian 50
- 34. An Interview with the Oldest Man In Europe 51
- 35. The Łemko Steeple 52
- 36. Starless 53
- Part Five
- 37. A Plurality of Worlds 57
- 38. Water 58
- 39. The Poet of 1912 59
- 40. Anonymous Rex 60
- 41. How to Get There 61
- Part Six
- 42. Spreading Democracy 65
- 43. Jenin, 2002 67
- 44. The Terrorist 68
- 45. After the Old Masters 69
- 46. No Flowers, No Doves 70
- 47. Two Dates 71
- 48. On the Beheading of Eugene Olin Armstrong 72
- 49. The July Sun over Lebanon 73
- 50. On the Lynching of Saddam Hussein 74
- 51. Black Ops 76
Part Seven
- 52. A Warning to Dissidents 79
- 53. Halloween, 2006 80
- 54. The Condemned House 81
- 55. Understanding the Holocaust 82
- 56. Vision 83
- 57. Monomatapa on the Detroit River 84
Epilogue
- 58. Epilogue 87
- About the Author 89
