Paulus Böhmer

Paulus Böhmer Foto: gezett

Paulus Böhmer (born 1936 Berlin) is the great surmounter of contemporary German poetry, in his linguistic force, a simultaneously declamatory and tender poet. His texts, a “life-affirming vanitas” (FAZ) with ragged edges on both sides around the thought-through axis, converge into a single, forceful long poem. Each thread, pulled from the fabric at random spots, runs through the whole. Regardless of whether the book happens to be called “Kaddish” or “Am Meer. An Land. Bei mir”, his work is a single canto that begins somewhere and ends nowhere, tracing an arc through the whole creation. Everywhere there is “air, desire and haywarmth” and the “primordial dust of the milky way”.

Publications (selection)

Fuchsleuchten, Schöffling 2004
Kaddish I – X, Schöffling 2006
Kaddish XI - XXI, Schöffling 2007
21 Briefe an Froilleins, Verlag Peter Engstler 2008
Am Meer. An Land. Bei mir, Verlag Peter Engstler 2010