“Marc Vincenz lucid translations make Klaus Merz’ varied and vivid poems delightful, incisive responses to the world and life imagined in startling images that upend our ways of seeing: he provides a visual glossary of the poetry of everyday life. Whether in his minimalist, haiku-like poems or the prose poems or longer verse poems, his language is seamless and draws us in.“—Maxine Chernoff“Merz is like a diamond cutter—he writes of the inevitable and ineffable with incisive, shimmering clarity.”—Nin Andrews“A master of the precise apercu, of distillation and insinuation: a poet who carefully weighs each and every word, color and tone. An autumn wind wafts through these poems. There is talk of departure, death and impermanence; but also, time, and time again, of the beauty of an endangered world. Klaus Merz dares—without wavering, but with a tender meticulousness—to do something that has been the task of all poets for millennia …”—Neue Züricher Zeiting“Subtle milestones define Klaus Merz’ poems; no blaring voices, rather the reverberations between the lines, carried on by this gentle melancholy: sketches from plain life; close encounters between ordinary people … observations and minutia from encounters and journeys; then suddenly this metaphysical commentary on one’s lot and life … In these poems you will encounter moods and atmospheres that all of use have stumbled upon at some point; yet here, they are sealed in by most ingenious words and retain all their worth.”—Literatur&Kunst (a magazine of literature + art)
