London Manuscript

Traces of enrootment/belonging – a few words about searching for a universal value
(…) In the poetical world of London Manuscript, an individual can only be embedded/rooted in the Anglophone world if situated in the matrix of constant references to the European, Western heritage: thus a frequent use of iconic words such as: Nietzsche, Socrates, Siberia, postmodernism is in place. Even so, discovering one’s own self in such a world is a matter of one’s continuous endeavour to cognition and consolidation of his/her identity. To achieve this goal, a poetics of subtle sentimentalism and cliché is often employed. This kind of poetic imagery generates notions encoded in memory, and thus unblocks them in a situational context that is given to readers via the poetic situations, which evolve from detail and individuality to generalization and universalism. Yet, while we are familiarizing ourselves with scripts and illustrations of taming places/ideas/objects/history, we are witnessing the subject’s (cosmopolitan?) identity on the rise; the subject who is aware of his/her place and space where the Other (a newcomer from a Polish/different culture) and the culture that is foreign to him/her (though with its otherness and uniqueness) have a chance to meet. (…)
Dr Teresa Podemska – Abt
(PhD, Postgrad. BED/MEd c/w, MA)
The original title: Ślady zakorzenienia, czyli parę słów o tropieniu wartości uniwersalnych;

The California State Poetry Society literary blog (June 23 2021), published a review of „London Manuscript” (Poetry Space, Bristol), written by Ted Smith -Orr.

Na blogu literackim The Californian State Poetry Society (June 23 2021) ukazała sie recenzja „London Manuscript”, wydanego przez Poetry Space w Bristolu. Autorem jest londyński poeta z grupy Poets Anonymous Ted Smith -Orr.

Book Reviews from the Poetry Letter No. 2, 2021 – Poetry by Williams, Day, Wilson, & Mickiewicz

The volume London Manuscript by Anna Maria Mickiewicz, which was published by Poetry Space in English, is not an extensive book packed with an unnecessary number of poems only to satisfy the expectations of the publisher. The book consists of twenty six pages, where Anna Maria shares her reflections based on poetical journeys to France, Warsaw, Lublin, Oxford, London, Arkhangelsk and many other places.

In the poem Summer in Seaford, the readers are offered very subtle expressions: “The sun sheds it’s golden drops / The sea devours them instantly”.

Whereas in the poem Another Alexandra Palace Spring, she presents the readers with a panorama of the city and, laying the false trail, she ends: “We embrace”.

Her profound insight into the English culture finds confirmation in the poem Reflected in Porcelane arguing that everything can be solved thanks to “tea only with milk”. These poems are refined and succinct, which we expect from an experienced writer.

The poetess sits us comfortably between the East and the West.

In her poem December the Thirteenth, she thinks of this day as a dire prediction, and she lived in Poland then: “A crumbling world order cries out for help”; “The voice of The Subversive faltered and fell […] / another empire topples, just like that / Not even sheets of paper anymore”.

The volume also contains a piece titled Chocolate, which could be described as multidimensional poetic prose. Based on an unfulfilled profession of love made to chocolate by a woman, the excerpt starts in the Warsaw of the 60’s, reaches America and Italy, just to go back to Warsaw at the turn of the millennium. It is rich in paradoxes: pleasure and pain, the happiness derived from waiting and the bitter taste of contemporary changes.

Anna Maria Mickiewicz finished this period of her development as a poetess many years ago and she enriches the world of poetry generously by organising literary events in London, editing, writing and choosing poems for publication. She accepts the challenge of translating poetry but she is also inclined to ask Tom Wachtel to translate some of the poems. Nurturing a live memory of Poland, she simultaneously keeps discovering the United Kingdom.

London Manuscript is a magnificent study written by a poetess – emigrant, living outside of her country but having a close look at new surroundings. Conscious of her past, she seems not to look back but tries to embrace the present and unknown future. The observations and associations of the poetess-foreigner from the post-dependent country are enlightening and bold.

Ted Smith-Orr

London 2014

Anna Maria Mickiewicz, London Manuscript, Poetry Space, Bristol 2014, 978-1-909404-18-2 40 pages, booklet

http://www.poetryspace.co.uk/2014/07/london-manuscript-by-anna-maria-mickiewicz/

Ted Smith-Orr – poet, publisher, radio journalist, illustrator. In 1991, he joined the London based group Poets Anonymous. The publisher of a poetry series “Creative Energy Publications”. Together with Peter Evans, they run the radio programme devoted to poetry in London entitled The Poets Anonymous, Poetry Programme (www.croydonradio.com). On various occasions, he was invited to join a jury of different poetical contests in Great Britain.

The California State Poetry Society literary blog (June 23 2021), published a review of „London Manuscript” (Poetry Space, Bristol), written by Ted Smith -Orr.

Book Reviews from the Poetry Letter No. 2, 2021 – Poetry by Williams, Day, Wilson, & Mickiewicz

London Manuscript – Anna Maria Mickiewicz | Recenzje

London Manuscript

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