Books by Richard Berengarten

Imagems 2 contains six statements by a poet who continues to challenge modernism and post-modernism alike. Here, the borders between poetic theory and practice blur, for some of these texts are prose-poems in themselves. While their themes are rooted in the here-now, their structures call to mind early 20th century manifestos.

"Avebury freely moves through time, from pre-textual history to descriptions of art and civilisation, in the same way that Olson's Maximus Poems and all of Eliot's poems in Four Quartets envision history as an event that is taking place now and always, past and present simultaneously existing." -Neli Moody

Spanning a period of fifteen years, these five 'Inter-views' with Richard Berengarten explore the many facets of his writings. Hospitably and expansively, they yield insights into the work of a poet of our time, his methods, motives, and patterns of thought.

Imagems 1 contains six statements by a European poet who challenges modernism and post-modernism alike and extends (beyond) both. Richard Berengarten takes as his twin cues a statement by Octavio Paz, "For the first time in our history we are contemporaries of all humanity", and a short poem by George Seferis.

Written during and after the disintegration of Yugoslavia, this book presents a complex vision of the Balkans that flinches from neither brutality nor beauty but honours dignity and courage. The book starts with a long poem 'Do vidjenje Danitse', and continues with a series of memorial tablets for victims of Jasenovac Concentration Camp.

Set in the ruins of Yugoslavia, this book explores the images and realities of war, destruction and dictatorship, and of fertility, nurture and peace. The key figure is the Balkan rain maiden. This gypsy or peasant girl takes on a mythological authority and a wholly modern moral presence. In the wake of waste and war she is the incarnation of hope.

The action of this book-length poem unfurls in the public and private worlds of corporate man. The Manager is a poet's response to challenges thrown down by T.S. Eliot more than eighty years ago in The Waste Land. Its ground is identity, sexuality and vision. Its occupation is mind, heart and spirit.

This first volume of Selected Writings by Richard Berengarten consists of longer poems written between 1965 and 2000, in Greece, Italy, England and Yugoslavia. While some poems have their focal points in a recognisably English landscape and consciousness, there is no insular limitation on the matter.

Taking its departure from both the Nazi massacre at Kragujevac in former Yugoslavia in 1941, and a moment at the memorial museum in 1985, when a blue butterfly descended onto the author's writing hand, this profound book crafts living poetry out of suffering and tragedy.