Reading “In a Time of Peace” by Ilya Kaminsky

Poetry Lunch E3S1

Reading “In a Time of Peace” by Ilya Kaminsky from Deaf Republic, published by Graywolf Press.

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Another spring is shouldering around the corner here in the northwest of the US and I’m grateful as ever for the work poets do in our world.

I first read Deaf Republic soon after it was released in 2019 and felt shot through by each bullet that rings out in the book. It is set in a small town that could be the small town I’m from save for the language spoken. Full of searing neighborly details and the best and worst of what happens to people under siege.

The war. All the wars. Still we are living. I think Ilya’s work asks us how, how are we living? And can we do better? It reminds me always of the impossibly simple things I get to take for granted day to day to day. And invites me to stand with those who don’t. Builds a bridge from here to there. Will you walk it with me?

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Big thanks to Saleem of Zoeglossia for hosting the most welcoming wonderful-to-arrive-in reading at the tail end of AWP (to which I referred in this video). I also want to acknowledge that I'm learning, slowly, to think outside the box of my own abilities. I plan to start adding captions to these videos; something I've been meaning to figure out but haven't taken the time for too many unimportant reasons. Taking the time now.

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Links to purchase

Get the book here: Deaf Republic.