[ book tip by Literatur Schweiz ] Raphael Urweider’s volume of poetry «Lights in Menlo Park» captures the world in its material guise. He finds a commanding and mature voice to write about continents, clouds, nature and all its discharges. Kopernikus, Curie, Galileo and Lumière grace the gallery. And above all Thomas Alva Edison. In his laboratory in Menlo Park, the first electric bulb with a carbon filament lit up in 1879 and burnt itself onto the retinas of Edison’s employees. Fiat lux. Urweider’s poems wear the cloak of objectivity, seem mundane even. Exquisite imagery and an unconventional rhythm invest them with poetic quality.

One of the key words is «calm»: in it lies the well that fuels the unrest of the search, the unrest of the researcher. And it is also in this state of arousal the poems are formally held. They are lyric in regards to lines and stanzas, the language flow, however, disregards these borders and opens itself up through the omission of clarifying punctuation marks. It is up to the readers to punctuate and thus organize these free ‹chain reactions›. The volume «Lights in Menlo Park» thus shines through poetic strong-mindedness and prosaic wit alike.

(Beat Mazenauer, translation by Simon Froehling)

[ Favourite quote ] «...es träumt
ihm stechpalme die mit den beeren noch feucht die
roten breiten bänder hängen von grossen rollen über
dem gewichtigen arbeitstisch kleines kofferradio presst
gravierende klassik kurz vor den neun uhr neuigkeiten
sind nur die hände des trauerfloristen ganz wach....»

[ book info ] Urweider, Raphael: Lichter in Menlo Park. (original language: German) Lights in Menlo Park. DuMont Verlag, Köln, 2000 . ISBN: 3-7701-5256-5.