“
Poetry is freedom of spirit, flight, imagination. There are always sparks of the Divine in good poetry. When you read real poetry, you not only feel it, but also see it – in fact, you are in the cinema, where there is only one spectator, and this spectator is you, the reader!
Alexander Korotko
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Poetry of the day
About cities
SAINT-PETERSBURG
The phantom of greatness on a whim of Peter moved from Holland and was
reborn on the banks of the Neva. But this is only the forerunner, the prelude
to social realism that immured alive in the history millions of fates
for centuries. The periodic table, all the creative elements – all
the enemies, not enough cells, and no empty seats at all, everything is flooded
with blood.
reborn on the banks of the Neva. But this is only the forerunner, the prelude
to social realism that immured alive in the history millions of fates
for centuries. The periodic table, all the creative elements – all
the enemies, not enough cells, and no empty seats at all, everything is flooded
with blood.
AMSTERDAM
Obscenely lowered life, timid liberty on the edge of
the needle, hallucinations on weekdays, love in the windows, a parody
for the procreation. And not far from in the depth, no, on the surface
of history, Dutch painting, Van Gogh and Anne Frank’s surprise,
written under the dictation of a living in her house spider named
swastika of fascism.
the needle, hallucinations on weekdays, love in the windows, a parody
for the procreation. And not far from in the depth, no, on the surface
of history, Dutch painting, Van Gogh and Anne Frank’s surprise,
written under the dictation of a living in her house spider named
swastika of fascism.
KIEV
Demonic time. Messengers of happiness with unpretentious
truth invade into the life of politically well-fed, half-mendicant
and half-rich motherland, separated from the common sense, from
the foundations of being. How many wars, pogroms and famines should
we still overcome. Endless chorus of exhausted, dead,
humiliated by the historical passion of miseries is singing silent songs
over the country in the looking glass of heaven. For whom?
Is it really given to hear them? Sensitive hearing – it’s an anxiety of
the heart, the relentless memory of epochs, it is the pain that lives
at the native threshold and which we don’t allow to come into our house.
2008
KIEV
My city, my first, last farewell love, let’s try not to notice
each other, familiar troubles, let’s meet for breakfast
in the homely café opposite the after-dinner war.
Guernica is already walking along the pavements of dreams
embracing nonsense, and pain as salt, whiter than the truth,
sounds like a heartbeat on the anvil of silence.
Songs finished and became deaf, over the migratory sloboda
a flock of addresses is circling, where nobody will come back to,
and the originals of life today are not in the museums of the world,
but here, in the winter streets and squares. Time is going gray
in the eyes, and we have grown old of happiness. Spirit of
freedom asks for help and reflects by the echo in the eyes of
tired peacekeepers like the cathedral of fiery passions.
2014
each other, familiar troubles, let’s meet for breakfast
in the homely café opposite the after-dinner war.
Guernica is already walking along the pavements of dreams
embracing nonsense, and pain as salt, whiter than the truth,
sounds like a heartbeat on the anvil of silence.
Songs finished and became deaf, over the migratory sloboda
a flock of addresses is circling, where nobody will come back to,
and the originals of life today are not in the museums of the world,
but here, in the winter streets and squares. Time is going gray
in the eyes, and we have grown old of happiness. Spirit of
freedom asks for help and reflects by the echo in the eyes of
tired peacekeepers like the cathedral of fiery passions.
2014
JERUSALEM
Chaotically and irreconcilably quiet. Last year’s snow seemed a mane,
but no one came to collect it. They thought, Saturday. They were mistaken.
It’s time to wear a talliet. Fear seems an inconspicuous person for
tourists. All in their hands, and even the fairy-tales of unadjusted to
the spiritual life guides. It’s hard to see the rivers, flowing with milk and honey.
And the Glory Cloud that brought people out of Egypt, reminds
a cotton candy, I don’t remember, who of townspeople said.
TEL AVIV
Hot air, like the desert sand, heavy, dumb,
that grows on the way, when you’re immersed into the space
of streets, into the night mess of lights, into the stream of people’s longing,
that moves towards the time, its frozen forms, that have gained
on this patch of land their second home of the unfulfilled love
to the east. The skyscrapers moved from the emigrant distances of the paradise,
orphaned teenagers, they also didn’t find happiness under the sky,
thunderstruck by the intifada. Across the road there is a seedy cafe, and pies with
poppy seeds and feigelach buns, and this life, as a continuation of the dream,
and grandmother, so quiet, earthly, from the far Ukraine, where
all were alive. It’s time for me to go to the Philharmonic for the memory evening
of murdered, where the requiem will sound.
that grows on the way, when you’re immersed into the space
of streets, into the night mess of lights, into the stream of people’s longing,
that moves towards the time, its frozen forms, that have gained
on this patch of land their second home of the unfulfilled love
to the east. The skyscrapers moved from the emigrant distances of the paradise,
orphaned teenagers, they also didn’t find happiness under the sky,
thunderstruck by the intifada. Across the road there is a seedy cafe, and pies with
poppy seeds and feigelach buns, and this life, as a continuation of the dream,
and grandmother, so quiet, earthly, from the far Ukraine, where
all were alive. It’s time for me to go to the Philharmonic for the memory evening
of murdered, where the requiem will sound.
24.02.2023
A large material about the poem by A. Korotko PARIS was published in the first literary edition of China in 2023
The first Beijing literary magazine in 2023 published an extensive article about the poem by…
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06.01.2023
Aleksander Korotko’s poems were performed at a royal evening in London
Andrew Sheppard – editor-in-chief of the famous British publication “East-West Review”, a poet and translator…
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03.01.2023
We continue to publish new poems of Aleksander Korotko about the war in Ukraine
Today we publish here the author’s new poems in the original and in the Ukrainian…
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28.12.2022
Aleksander Korotko’s new poems have been translated into Polish and Hebrew
We recently added a new work by Aleksander Korotko “Behind the fortress wall of winter…”…
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29.11.2022
Cambridge academic and writer Patrick Miles wrote a review of Alexander Korotko’s poem “War”
Today, in the Critique section of the website, we published Patrick Miles’ review of Alexander…
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03.11.2022
The famous Ukrainian magazine VSESVIT informed its readers about the publication of a fragment from Korotko’s poetry book “War” in a British literary magazine
Today, the official website of the Ukrainian magazine of foreign literature “VSESVIT” published the news…
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15.10.2022
A magazine with poems of Aleksander Korotko about the war in Ukraine was published in China
The new issue of the Chinese-Taiwanese literary magazine “World Literature” / March-April 2022 in Shanghai…
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14.10.2022
The poem “War” was announced in the newsletter for members of the British PEN club
Another official newsletter for members of the British PEN Club – English Pen Membership News…
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Apprentice. Book about creators (Подмастерье. Книга о творцах)
A collection of poetry by Alexander Korotko, dedicated to great creators: from Pushkin and Lermontov to Picasso and Magritte, from Kafka and Freud to Vysotsky and Nureyev. The collection also includes the poem "Paris"...
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The Mausoleum of the Memory (Памяти Мавзолей)
A collection of philosophical and psychological poems by Alexander Korotko about the terrible pages of our history (the Gulag, the Holocaust)...
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Книга «Moon Boy» / «Лунный мальчик» в переводе на английский язык
How many remarkable lives there are within us. I went to meet the nocturnal guest. I don't know why, but at the very moment when I opened the door, I felt such warmth and tenderness, felt...
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Книга «Ragazzo di luna» / «Лунный мальчик» в переводе на итальянский
Korotko si riferisce alla demenza del tempo in modo trascendente, mentre l’intelligenza e la coscienza sono il frutto di uno sforzo che è necessario compiere: bisogna interrompere il...
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Irrazionalismo
Alexander Korotko is a Russian-language Ukrainian poet from Kyiv. Born in Korosten, Ukraine, he studied economics at Odessa University. His first collection, "Window", was published in 1989. Since then he has published more...
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Stus, Kindle Edition
A Narrative Poem by poet and writer Alexander Korotko. Tragic story of Ukrainian dissident poet Vasyl Stus, who died in Soviet forced labor camp....
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Joseph and Jacob, Kindle Edition
A Narrative Poem by poet and writer Alexander Korotko. This poem tells about the dramatic events that occurred in ancient times in Egypt with Joseph, his brothers, and their father Jacob....
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Abraham and Isaac, Kindle Edition
A Long Poem by poet and writer Alexander Korotko. Biblical story of the righteous Abraham, who was ready to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac at the behest of God...
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Bera and Cucumber, Kindle Edition
Tales, short stories and essays - Alexander Korotko's prose of the latter decade in a new book with an intriguing title. The action takes place in the Ukrainian city Odessa, where the author spent his childhood and youth. Non-standard plot, elements of ...
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Criticism
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“
Very occasionally a unique new voice in poetry rises above the clamouring crowd to command
attention. Informed by a very different culture, language and environment from his Anglophone
audience, Korotko’s short, sharp observations of life around him are far from the easiest to
translate...
Hillary Shears, translator and poet. December 2019, London