Żegaryszki. Wiersze najmniejsze/Firewords. Tiny Poems is the new, bilingual (Polish and English) book and contains the selection of Krzysztof Czyżewski’s haiku poems.
In order to underline the exceptionality of these poems and their link to the locality and microworld of the borderland between Poland, Lithuania and Belarus, Krzysztof coined the special term to name his haiku series. The neologism żegaryszki comes from an old Polish noun that was used in the past and meant little twigs and branches that burnt the way embers did. This term in English is translated as the firewords: words which carry a little of what brings light and of what heats. Sometimes we do not need too much light and heat, we need enough – each of us according to our individuality.
Each poem is supplemented by a photograph taken by Krzysztof. Thus each of them is even more rooted in the landscape of the microworld. Each poem is also given a day date. The poems are put in the yearly calendar and go more or less from the moment of the vernal equinox to the end of winter. As it was written by Paweł Próchniak, this edition seems to be the pivotal book of tiny poems as it contains the poems from the previous two series together with some new ones. It puts them again in the recurring cycle of yearly life, of seasons, days and nights.
The book is a selection of two series of tiny poems by Krzysztof Czyżewski that have already been published in Polish.
It was officially presented on July 7, 2023 during the evening in the Song on Porcelain cafe in Krasnogruda. The talk was hosted by Paweł Próchniak.
Let the fire and the warmth of these tiny poems bring hope and spread all over the world beyond the landscape of the borderland where they are set.
To buy the book see here.