Igor Pomierancew

KGB i inne wiersze

“KGB and other poems” – Igor Pomerancew’s poems are typically brief—rarely more than a dozen lines. The almost constant use of irony, self-irony, and occasionally sarcasm is another defining characteristic. They are frequently novellas that are based on both real and imagined events. The poet assumes the parts of his protagonists much like an actor would: he adopts the personas of his protagonists, whether they are a lonely senior, a patient in a mental institution, the manager of a retirement home, or a lab mouse. He does not shy away from difficult, unpoetic issues like incurable diseases, pandemic, long-term incarceration, old age, death, and war. The book ends with powerful poems that were written during the Russian invasion of Ukraine and with which the exiled author is spiritually and biographically tied.