W amerykańskim piśmie Polish American Journal, January 2020 ukazała się recenzja książki.
http://www.polamjournal.com/books-in-brief.html
THE ART OF FLYING
“Flying Between Words” is a poetic transformation of time and soul, searching for rooting in the history, language and the source of existence. The aviation-themed book published in the series of “Contemporary Writers of Poland” in the American publishing house Dreammee Little City (Florida: 2015) under the guidance of Anna Maria Mickiewicz and Danuta Błaszak, cultural ambassadors engaged in promotion of Polish literature abroad, is a unique international position.
The publication has a historical and metaphysical background. It’s a tribute to the families of the authors of the anthology, pre-war group devotees of aviation, builders and pilots, the forgotten ordinary people creating history. It contains stories, poems and memoirs of Polish writers from Britain, the United States, and the representatives of the Polish community. In their works they express the emotions associated with the stay in exile, which represents the work of the spirit. A variety of subjects, objectivity and visionarism are actually the value of the book.
For the authors, the word is a Heideggerian occurence, a path to identity, which is never prepared and constituted, crossing the boundaries between the real world and the metaphysical, the uniqueness of experience and versatility of time. The importance of the flight shall be expressed in terms of a musical score. Poetry is intertwined with the history: „on earth You are so dull/but in heaven the worlds are dancing and vibrating in You”. Historicity has existential meaning and tends to a limit situation.
Flying between words has an ontological dimension. Poets pose questions about the sense of humanity as in the lines of Agnieszka Herman: „insane guide of the handicapped herd […] I say it sounds gloomy-Hitler, Stalin, Mao, […] religions dipped in blood, […] the scream of fright as knife marks the future „, rise above the randomness of existence and its finity in the works of Alicja Kuberska” and insignificant human being, in a desert banner, traverse thousands of miles, at a bewildering speed „, show mystical let go of ego and ecstatic immersion in the border of forms and incarnations „she is a cloud/a quill of a lost poem”, „my arm that is not a wing/leaving the parachute handle with the right to choose. I am a stone „. Creative poetic imagination provides full freedom of existence, exploring the essence of things, sensual and revealing view of the world as living present. The art of flying, detachment from the ground is a part of Bachelard’s poetics of dreams, in which the word is the house of being. That’s why anthology is so important for the émigré poets expressing longing for country and language.
The act of seeing is the philosophy of action in terms of ethics, where life is good and meaningful. Contemplative visions presented in the anthology show the authentic sense of art as a form of transcendence thanks to the memory and fascination with beauty. Poets concentrate on the experience of desolation and loneliness expressing humility before the multiplicity and absoluteness of the cosmos. “The greatness of ocean and sky is marked by the lack of boundaries/I feel the solitude of a lost wanderer”.
Endless flight to eternity, exploring the metaphysical worlds, dissolution in time and space leads to the understanding of individual being in the eschatological dimension, sublimation of fears and looking at things from a distance: „sharp cross plane/I cut the sky from the ground and anything small and all that trivial leave without regret”, „ I am jumping/leaving my fear on the doorstep of the aircraft”. A journey to the core of imagination and cognition forms repetition, starting eternal return, passing the limits and grasping the essence of existence.
The authors of the anthology Flying Between Words touch intangible, reveal universal meaning through paradox, go far beyond the subject of airline or historical and poetic themes. The value of the book lies in its hermeneutics of postmodern culture full of discontinuity of time and history, the breakdown of subjectivity and traditional values. In conclusion, FBW contributes to self-understanding. This is why the book is worth recommendation.
The publication has a historical and metaphysical background. It’s a tribute to the families of the authors of the anthology, pre-war group devotees of aviation, builders and pilots, the forgotten ordinary people creating history. It contains stories, poems and memoirs of Polish writers from Britain, the United States, and the representatives of the Polish community. In their works they express the emotions associated with the stay in exile, which represents the work of the spirit. A variety of subjects, objectivity and visionarism are actually the value of the book.
For the authors, the word is a Heideggerian occurence, a path to identity, which is never prepared and constituted, crossing the boundaries between the real world and the metaphysical, the uniqueness of experience and versatility of time. The importance of the flight shall be expressed in terms of a musical score. Poetry is intertwined with the history: „on earth You are so dull/but in heaven the worlds are dancing and vibrating in You”. Historicity has existential meaning and tends to a limit situation.
Flying between words has an ontological dimension. Poets pose questions about the sense of humanity as in the lines of Agnieszka Herman: „insane guide of the handicapped herd […] I say it sounds gloomy-Hitler, Stalin, Mao, […] religions dipped in blood, […] the scream of fright as knife marks the future „, rise above the randomness of existence and its finity in the works of Alicja Kuberska” and insignificant human being, in a desert banner, traverse thousands of miles, at a bewildering speed „, show mystical let go of ego and ecstatic immersion in the border of forms and incarnations „she is a cloud/a quill of a lost poem”, „my arm that is not a wing/leaving the parachute handle with the right to choose. I am a stone „. Creative poetic imagination provides full freedom of existence, exploring the essence of things, sensual and revealing view of the world as living present. The art of flying, detachment from the ground is a part of Bachelard’s poetics of dreams, in which the word is the house of being. That’s why anthology is so important for the émigré poets expressing longing for country and language.
The act of seeing is the philosophy of action in terms of ethics, where life is good and meaningful. Contemplative visions presented in the anthology show the authentic sense of art as a form of transcendence thanks to the memory and fascination with beauty. Poets concentrate on the experience of desolation and loneliness expressing humility before the multiplicity and absoluteness of the cosmos. “The greatness of ocean and sky is marked by the lack of boundaries/I feel the solitude of a lost wanderer”.
Endless flight to eternity, exploring the metaphysical worlds, dissolution in time and space leads to the understanding of individual being in the eschatological dimension, sublimation of fears and looking at things from a distance: „sharp cross plane/I cut the sky from the ground and anything small and all that trivial leave without regret”, „ I am jumping/leaving my fear on the doorstep of the aircraft”. A journey to the core of imagination and cognition forms repetition, starting eternal return, passing the limits and grasping the essence of existence.
The authors of the anthology Flying Between Words touch intangible, reveal universal meaning through paradox, go far beyond the subject of airline or historical and poetic themes. The value of the book lies in its hermeneutics of postmodern culture full of discontinuity of time and history, the breakdown of subjectivity and traditional values. In conclusion, FBW contributes to self-understanding. This is why the book is worth recommendation.
Anna Banasiak