London Manuscript Ted Smith-Orr, Pamiętnik Literacki, London 2015 ZPPnO.
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
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.
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.