The Old Man’s Verses

Adopting the persona of the eponymous old man, celebrated Czech poet Ivan Divis writes of the comfort of memory, the nature of faith and the pain of exile. His `old man' lives alone, rejected by friends and family, yet refuses to give in to bitterness and despair. Instead, he confronts the ruins of his past with dark humor, and awaits with courage his final judgment. With alternating lines of earthy vulgarity and lyric transcendence, these poems expose the longing, pathos and absurdity of human existence. Available to English-speaking audiences for the first time, this is a moving collection from one of the twentieth century's most extraordinary poets.