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Book Review

White Magic and Other Poems

AMERICAN POET, no. 31 (Fall 2006)

Reviewed by Journal Editor(s)

The Polish poet Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński died young. Still, by the age of twenty-four, he produced over one thousand pages of poetry. This new selection, containing forty-five poems, chronicles the brief, poetic life of a poet greatly involved in the Polish resistance to Germany throughout World War II. Riddled with images of struggle and oppression, Baczyński’s poems propel the poetry of witness into cavernous meditations on history, time, and catastrophism: “The night rains on the windows, gathering power; / Blinded like me, the wind kneels at our home. / Who stole form us this carefree time of ours. Though Baczyński mainly wrote in free verse, translator Bill Johnston tries to remain true to the poet’s innovative half rhyme and surrealistic imagery, making Baczyński’s American debut a stimulating one.