Tar

Albert Ostermaier’s new poems come just at the right time, as they talk with urgency, powerful imagery and tremendous intensity about »what that / was the future and how we can / win it back«. He juxtaposes the dragging monotony of the Corona present, the quarantine of »I live / in inverted commas« with lively poems that illuminate everyday life, conjure confidence as if from nowhere and entice us to set out: »the / horizon sets its seven / sails«.

He counters the impositions of the times with refreshing obstinacy (»the world is out of joint but you / say we won’t submit«) and infectious joie de vivre (»just look at your heart / overgrown with grass / roll it up / and smoke it«). And along the way, he creates a new arithmetic of love that not just suspends the laws of mathematics.

»With ... light-footed quotations, Ostermaier not only demonstrates the broad allusiveness of his texts ... but at the same time his noble understanding of poetry. ... The intensity [of his poems] unfolds its effect in the clearest of tones.« Björn Hayer, Frankfurter Runschau

»The tone is razor-sharp, other times beautifully somnambulistic, floating.« Hans-Dieter Schütt, neues deutschland

»Albert Ostermaier undoubtedly proves once again that he is one of the most playful and comforting poets of our time.« Björn Hayer, BÜCHERmagazin