Introduction to my Poetry
I have written poetry over 40 years, from 1955 to 1995. The bulk of my German poetry was written between 1955 and 1967. My writing of English poetry has been continuous between 1967 and 1995.
This website offers two collections of texts as well as selected poetry readings, both in German [with English translations] and in English.
To this day, I find it difficult to acknowledge something as a "poem" that is not also an organized musical whole. Music and poetry go hand in hand with me.
Except for Harold Bond (1940-2000), Boston, MA, USA, my poetry teacher over 20 years, the poets who influenced me were known to me only from reading their work. This is especially true for Gottfried Benn, Paul Celan, and Robert Creeley with whom I found a deep inner connection. Gitta Steiner, a New York musician and poet, was the first American poet who took an interest in my English poetry (1967), for which I thank her.
The German poems have their origin in the early collection called Tönungen (Soundings) begun in 1955. They are gathered in Schlesische Sprachschmiede (2010), and also available in English translation.
The English poems here collected are brought together from 4 separate groups (2010):
- Tremblings, 1967 - 1979
- Untold Harmonies, 1979 - 1991
- Karman Poems, 1992
- Prose Poems, 1988 - 1992
Click here to download complete collection of English poems
Click here to download complete collection of German poems
Click here to go to a podcast of my 2014 reading of Prose Poems.
Click here to download e-book, Digital Esthetics , go to slide 24.