HAUS FÜR POESIE

She became celebrated, through collections such as Landaufenthalt, Zaubersprüche, Schneewärme, and Erlkönigs Tochter, for a distinctive poetic voice often associated with her name. Yet this reputation could also obscure the remarkable range of registers and tones available to her. Her poetry is deeply marked by the division of Germany, as well as by questions of guilt and responsibility in the aftermath of National Socialism. Some of her most unusual and acclaimed poems, including “Legende über Lilja” and “Der Milchmann Schäuffele,” reveal a writer who resists easy categorization. Kirsch is not merely a chronicler of landscapes wandering through the natural world. Alongside the swans, shimmering ducks, and peacocks that populate her poems stands the elderly woman bearing a tattooed number on the inside of her arm. At times, both worlds inhabit the same poem.

The seemingly idyllic scenes that recur in her work, complete with gatehouses and storks crossing unspoiled meadows, often prove deceptive. The same holds true for the self-portraits set among donkeys, sheep, and cats in her garden. Nature was undoubtedly central to her imagination: she celebrated summers reaching through open windows, pursued trees with almost childlike intensity, and returned again and again to fish, both real and imagined, inhabiting lakes, rivers, and bowls. Yet her poems are equally attentive to urban landscapes, currency exchange booths near Berlin Zoo, or the shadows cast beneath the city’s elevated railways. A spirit of fierce independence, even defiance, runs through many of these texts. Kirsch could be playful, abrasive, tender, or sharp-edged, constantly shifting perspectives and refusing to settle into a single poetic role. Her work repeatedly balances beauty and unease, intimacy and history, creating a body of poetry that remains as surprising as it is distinctive.

Before the event, at 5:30 p.m., there will be a warm-up session featuring a collective reading of poems by Sarah Kirsch: Let’s read Sarah Kirsch!

In Reading & Conversation Marit Heuß, Uwe Kolbe, Judith Zander
Moderation Steffen Popp