• Where Everyone Leaves, Never to Return
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Where Everyone Leaves, Never to Return

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Where Everyone Leaves, Never to Return is a captivating collection of poems in which Czech poet Bronislava Volková, a jongleur of contemporary verse, masterfully combines voice and nuance as she sa...
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  • 22 June 2023
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Where Everyone Leaves, Never to Return is a captivating collection of poems in which Czech poet Bronislava Volková, a jongleur of contemporary verse, masterfully combines voice and nuance as she saunters through love, loss, mortality, and eternal life. With a sharp wit, her verses render playful catechisms of why “a loving God can make an unloving man “ but they also dive deep into self-discovery, achieving, even if just for an instant, the hard-earned right to a “joyous spirit of inner being.“ Her work is a testament to her life lived in full--a diverse and all-encompassing experience. 
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Price: $19.95
Pages: 110
Publisher: Plamen Press
Imprint: Plamen Press
Publication Date: 22 June 2023
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9781951508272
Format: Paperback
BISACs: Modern & contemporary poetry (c 1900 onwards), Poetry by individual poets, Literary studies: poetry & poets, Gender studies: women & girls
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“Bronislava Volkova traipses her diverse poetic creations from place to place, from tongue to tongue, to survive. She is a magician of change. She pours sound and meaning between lake and mountain, and they rebound like chanting on a star. Hear the lyrical narration. Hear the profound emotion encased in the experience of the elegant survivor. Her words echo with wisdom and grace, her images stun through a photographer’s sharp lens, and the poetic song never ceases."

— Willis Barnstone, Author of Stickball on 88th Street


"Verses of Bronislava Volková are a universe of the soul. They are formable, creating a space where brevity and eternity coexist with metaphysics and a most realistic, genuine, and fully lived life. In order to write like this, a special gift is needed. The poet herself has to become a work of art. If we open, for example, a volume of Walt Whitman and then we turn right away to Bronislava Volková’s verses, we will under-stand what contemporary poetry is. An extreme laconism and concentration of life. And at the same time an understatement. A density of speech, with air between the lines."

—Aleksandr Karpenko - Author of Wind of Wounds

Bronislava Volková a bilingual poet, semiotician, translator, collagist, essayist and Professor Emerita of Indiana University, Bloomington, USA, where she was a Director of the Czech Program at the Slavic Department for thirty years. She is a member of Czech and American PEN Club. She went into exile in 1974, taught at the Universities of Cologne and Marburg and subsequently at Harvard and University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Modlitba dítěte • A Child’s Prayer

Jitro rozptyluje svoje průhledné prsty • Dawn spreads its transparent fingers

Pes • Dog

Loučení s mou drahou Kuši • Farewell to My Sweet Kushi

Festival poezie v Ščelkině (Krym) • Poetry Festival in Shchelkino (Crimea)

Láska lidí vyplouvá • Human love sails forth

Každodenně sbíráme síly k novému dni • Every day we collect our strength for a new day

Lásko má, už tě nepoznávám, • My Love, I no longer recognize you

Mé tělo, mé drahé, sladké dítě— • My body, my dear, sweet child—

Miluji ticho • I love silence

Neopouštěj mne • Don’t leave me

Léto, nezapomenutelné léto • Summer, unforgettable summer

Kdysi • Once

Když pomyslím na to, jak cestovali • When I think of how my relatives

Koronavirus • Coronavirus

Honí mě honí nedají pokoje • They’re chasing me, chasing, they won’t leave me alone

Dospěla jsem • I have arrived

Létám jako pták bez pevných záchytných bodů • I fly like a bird with no place to land

Nejsme tu sami • We are not alone here

Němý svědek • A Silent Witness

Nový verš • A New Verse

Orlátko se učí létat • An eaglet is learning how to fly

Pád do trní se může znenadání stát • A Tumble into a briar patch can suddenly become

Proč stvořil milující Bůh člověka nemilujícího? • Why did a loving God create an unloving man?

Třpyt • Splendor

Staré ženy jsou v našich pásmech neviditelné • Old women are invisible in our spheres

Ticho je pošta, ticho telefon • Silent the mail, silent the telephone

Únava tance • The weariness of dance.

V povětří láska • Love, hope was fluttering

Variace na téma únavy • Variation on the Theme of Weariness

Zaslechnuto • Overheard

Tak přicházíme bez povšimnutí • So, we arrive unnoticed

Moji drazí, tak ráda bych Vás navštívila • My dears, I would so gladly come to visit

Přišla kočička • A little cat came

Noc může být tak romantická a také osamělá • A night can be so romantic, but also lonely

Konec zavítal opět do mého obydlí • Another end has come to visit my home

V tolika jazycích jíme a pijem • We eat and drink in so many languages

Cesta dělání je cesta bytí. • The way to do is to be.

Rozmístit stroje a nástroje • To place machines and instruments

Život rodí smrt. Jsou věrní přátelé • Life begets death. They are faithful friends.

Měkká poddajnost vody… • The soft pliancy of water…

Lemuria • Lemuria

Až tu nebudu • When I am gone

Můj malý Buddho • My little Buddha