These poems move mysteriously by means of a profound inner concentration, giving expression to the deepest laws of the mind. Their linguistic ‘making’ is informed by vivid evidence of a serious self-making, soul-making, and heart-making. We are lucky to have these English incarnations of Nikola Madzirov. -Li-Young Lee

Born 1973 in a family of Balkan Wars refugees, Nikola Madzirov’s poetry has already been translated into thirty languages and published in collections and anthologies in the United States, Europe, and Asia. A regular participant in international literary festivals, he has received several international awards including an International Writing Program fellowship at the University of Iowa. Remnants of Another Age is his first full-length American collection and carries a foreword by Carolyn Forche who writes, Nikola Madzirov’s Remnants of Another Age is aptly titled, as these poems seem to spring from elsewhere in time, reflective of a preternaturally wise and attentive sensibility. As we read these poems, they begin to inhabit us, and we are the better for having opened ourselves to them. Madzirov is a rare soul and a true poet.

I SAW DREAMS

I saw dreams that no one remembers and people wailing at the wrong graves. I saw embraces in a falling airplane and streets with open arteries. I saw volcanoes asleep longer than the roots of the family tree and a child who’s not afraid of the rain. Only it was me no one saw, only it was me no one saw.