What form does a memory take when it’s written by a twenty-year-old poet?

Poetry

We first begin to take stock of our lives when we realize we are ageing and attempt to give voice to this. In Lubomír Tichý’s debut poetry collection, the twenty-year-old poet consciously looks back for the first time at what was, and for the first time captures in his own words all that has gone before in order to prevent it from becoming irretrievably lost. He wanders the landscape of the Polabí region where he lives, offering a personal take on how to live and survive in a small town. Paradoxically, this traditional approach appeals to each new generation, and each one attempts to express the loss of time in their own words. And so we are met with surprise and wonder, which are an inseparable part of poetry, in the same way as we admire the author’s attention to detail as he sets out to find all that has passed.

At the same time, Lubomír Tichý is neither a nostalgic nor an eclectic poet. He is just a shy, introverted narrator, playing with nostalgia without losing the perspective of a twenty-year-old. The most important thing about the collection is its ability to communicate to different generations. The poet doesn’t turn his back on the technology which is so essential to the younger generation, but he avoids getting caught in the trap of oversimplification. From the outset he wants to engage in a farreaching dialogue – which is a miracle constructed of small-scale records of material reality.

Lubomír Tichý (2003) is a student of Czech studies at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts. His poems have appeared in online as well as printed journals. He writes reviews and reflections on poetry and prose. In 2023, he was nominated for the Václav Burian Award for poetry. He lives in Rozběřice and in Prague.