Monika Maciasz
- Poland -
Monika Maciasz (1992) was a finalist in the Połów. Poetyckie debiuty 2021 project, organized by Biuro Literackie, the 27th Jacek Bierezin National Poetry Contest and the 9th poetic debut contest organized by Duży Format Foundation. She received scholarships from the Fleszerowa-Muskat Foundation (in 2020) and the Mayor of Gdansk (2024), as well as the Scholarship of the Marshal of the Pomeranian Voivodship for Creators of Culture (2022). She is the author of a book of poetry Border of the Eye (published by papierwdole-Katalog-Press, Ligota Mała–DùnÈideann, 2022). She was born in Krasnystaw and now lives in Gdansk.
Reviews:
- Rafał Różewicz: In progress. - O "Kraju oka" Moniki Maciasz pisze Rafał Różewicz - PROwincja
- Anonymous review: nameste blog · krach czy działa? (litglog.org)
Monika Maciasz, born in 1992, is a poet of paradoxes. Her debut volume Border of the Eye (published by papierwdole-Katalog-Press, Ligota Mała–DùnÈideann, 2022) derives from two seemingly contradictory traditions. Her playing these two pianos, so to speak, is cunningly contained in the very title of the volume – it’s a border of a country that is watching: observing closely, judging, depriving of privacy, as well as the grey area, meaning everything that slips sensory cognition, opposes unequivocalness, remains on the verge.
On the one hand, this collection of poems tells a story of identity built on the fine line between the intimate – everything that is physical, sensual, connected with the earth and wind (‘Take care of me as if I were a bean’ from a poem I Look into Space, into Time; ‘O generous earth, meadows are swelling within me!’ from Krasnystaw) – and the public, the here and now, most often taking the form of social criticism (‘The holy church of sinful people fights the rainbow’ from Afterimages of the Other Sex; ‘Poland has a malformation syndrome, suffers from anger’ from In the Name of the Mother, and the Daughter). The key words for this poetry, such as meat, blood and holiness, also function within this formula on multiple levels. They seek to be anchored in a detail, something material and specific (meat as a living organism or a commodity) in order to be hoisted up on the banners (an attitude towards blood as an attitude towards reality; ‘The voice is white, the blood is red, young/Polish’ from The Day of Reckoning), but their main goal is to individualize the experience of being in the world, at once speaking about empathizing with other (non-human, belonging to the realm of animals and plants) creatures (‘I scrub my body with the ashes/ of burnt sacred animals’ from The Flaming Giraffe, Koala). The poems, usually concise in volume, employing a spare use of phrasing, cut with an amazing precision; they explore the deepest and most intimate recesses of the self, invariably questioning immediate conclusions, in accordance with the logic of violent elements, sleepless nights and the insolent world.
On the other hand, the story of identity is continually, and in various manners, undermined. Many of the poems are set in some sort of a primeval time, way back before the development of civilization, or quite the opposite, following its collapse, right after the apocalypse (there is a recurring motif of the premonition of the end, of ‘numbered bones’ and ‘a great fire’). In this sense, the collection could be read – and the poet skillfully fulfills the premise – as reaching toward the poetics of a diffuse, non or post-anthropocentric lyrical subject. The final image of a mother’s death (‘My mother was good at wind and lush gardens./ My mother, a rock, my mother, fertile’ from Copper, Rusty Blood) would then be an actual reckoning with all that is human (and one’s own, connected to closeness, indigenousness and body). In this new beginning what counts most is a dispersed, discontinuous existence, reborn despite all the losses – a river, a primrose, a goosefoot, as well as silence, shadow and wind that make it possible for all living things to survive numerous ends. Hence, the reappearing image of the earth (both fertile and containing death); the poet fits into an important, ecocritical trend that has been present in Polish poetry in recent years (Małgorzata Lebda, among others, has touched upon the topic of “earth issues” in her writing), while at the same time redirecting her musings on organic relations towards reflections about the decline of anthropocene which, as in a zombie-like danse macabre, twitches in its last spasms (‘Bulldozers devour meadows/
Leśmian rolls over in his grave’ from The Day of Reckoning).
The original versions of Border of the Eye have been acclaimed in first poetry book competitions – Monika Maciasz was a finalist in the Połów Poetycki project, organized by Biuro Literackie, and the Jacek Bierezin National Poetry Contest. These accolades are not surprising: the poet has evolved her own style, combining minimalism – sometimes dream-like, at other times showing a reporter’s bent – with clarity and a powerful message. And the clearer and more powerful it feels, the further it gets from authoritative slogans: ‘Clothes dry on skin, warm as church bricks./ I am so close, so far away. /Roads have diverged, rivers have renounced me.’ (from Krasnystaw).
An essay by Jakub Kornhauser
Translated by Zofia Szachnowska-Olesiejuk
Poetry
-
Echo as a Starting Point / Echo jako punkt wyjścia
-
La Petite / La petite
-
Border of the Eye / Kraj oka
-
Rich Soil / Tłusta ziemia
-
Coherent Light / Światło spójne
-
Safe Word: Word / Słowo bezpieczeństwa: słowo
-
Dogma / Dogma
-
Pulse of a Flower / Puls kwiatu
-
Coma / Śpiączką
-
I Look into Space, into Time / Patrzę w przestrzeń, w czas
-
Krasnystaw / Krasnystaw
-
A Great Beauty / Wielkie piękno
-
Sanatorium / Sanatorium
-
Intent of Creation / Zamysł stworzenia
-
A Good Piece / Dobra sztuka
-
In the Name of the Mother, and the Daughter / W imię matki i córki
-
The Day of Reckoning / Sądny dzień
-
Copper, Rusty Blood / Miedź, ruda krew
-
Points of Adhesion / Miejsca zrostu
-
Sati / Sati
-
Flying Manual / Instrukcja z latania
-
Even Herds / Parzyste stada
-
Madonna / Madonna
-
Suspense / Suspens
-
Priority of Direction / Priorytet kierunku
-
Priority of Order / Priorytet porządku
-
Priority of Concord / Priorytet zgody