Regarding poetry of Gerhard Falkner

Gerhard Falkner, born in 1951. His a poet, playwright, essayist and translator. The publication of his first volume of poetry, so beginnen am körper die tage (so begin the days along your body) received enormous critical acclaim, comparable only to the echo to Grünbeins appearance ten years later. The volume was followed by der atem unter der erde (the breath beneath the ground) 1984 and wemut in 1989.

A grant awarded by the "Literarisches Colloqium" led to the publication of Berlin -Eisenherzbriefe (Berlin - Iron Heart Letters) in 1986, considered to be an important postmodern text. In 1998 the first comprehensive monograph in English Voice and Void. The poetry of Gerhard Falkner, by Neil Donahue was published. After several stays in New York, Falkner was made "writer in residence" at the New York University, he also lived in Berlin, Munich, Amsterdam, London, Rome, San Francisco and many other places. In the early 90"s he spent one year travelling through the United States and Mexico, which brought forth his collection of American poets Am lit.

At present he lives near Nuremberg and in Berlin. Falkner received numerous awards and scholarships, among others in the "Villa Massimo'" (Casa Baldi) and at "Schloß Wiepersdorf" in Brandenburg. In 2003 he took up the prestigious scholarship at "Schloß Solitude" in Stuttgart.

Using essential images, in so beginnen am körper die tage Gerhard Falkner left behind the poetic common sense of the early 80´s that rejected anything but formal experiments and "everyday poetry". He combined formal discipline with a opulent and direct sense of the present, thus preparing the ground, as one of the first of his generation, for a poetry alive with richness and sensuality as well as melancholy and pain, as it then began to gain acceptance from the middle of the 80"s. Falkner"s poems also dealt with the estrangement of the poet, the disappearance of the writer in the background noise of his text and of history. This experience motivated his decision to silence himself, as he announced in 1989 his volume wemut to be his last poetic work.

After publishing in 1995 a selection of earlier, but also several new poems, titled X-te Person Einzahl (Nth-Person Singular), he broke his resolution with Endogene Gedichte (Endogenous Poems), where he writes: "I made a mistake in 1989. I did announce not to publish any more poetry. The fault was not in the intention, but in its consequences. The announcement became a kind of trademark, it followed me like the Erynnies followed Orestis - however not with mythical force, but as a notorious reflex".

Nevertheless the disappearance remains a topic in Falkner"s new work, as for example in the poem "Kopfmusik" (Headmusic), where it reads: "unsere Gedichte werden vergessen / werden, - bleiben wird allein / das Kopfweh / derer, die sie nicht behalten haben". (forgotten will our poems / be, - stay will solely / the headache / of those who did not keep them.) One of the most potent poetic voices of his generation, captivating with its powerful imagery as well as its formal structure, this voice will certainly not be forgotten.

Publications (selection):

so beginnen am körper die tage. Gedichte. (poems, 1981)
der atem unter der erde. Gedichte. (poems, 1984)
Wehmut. Gedichte. (poems, 1991)
Über den Unwert des Gedichts. Fragmente und Reflexionen. (1993)
seventeen selected poems. (poems, 1994);
X-te Person Einzahl. Gesammelte Gedichte. (poems, 1996)
Endogene Gedichte. (poems, 2000)