Poesis of experience. About Ryszard Krynicki’s almost-haiku poetry

Abstract

This article is an attempt to analyse the late poems of Ryszard Krynicki, especially those similar, in structure and themes, to Japanese short-form poetry, haiku. In addition, the article is a synthesisof haiku’s history and its influence on Polish literature. It shows how poetic miniatures from the Land of the Rising Sun influenced the “Nowa Fala” (New Wave of Polish Poetry). The article focuses on Haiku. Haiku Mistrzów [Haiku. Haiku of the Masters], Krynicki’s last collection of poems, but also refers to the earlier works (from the 1970s and 80s). It also discusses the philosophy of Zen Buddhism, which became the main influence on Krynicki’s late works. Poems became shorter and shorter, the gnomic form began to prevail, until they finally reached its final stage, haiku (or, in Krynicki case, often silence). The article also presents Krynicki as a fully-fledged metaphysical poet who wishes to express the inexpressible. It aims to explain why the poet describes his works as “almost haiku”. The author deals with subjects such as: transgression, language, haiku, metaphysics and silence.