Returning From Katia Kapovich Poem by Dmitry Garanin

Katia Kapovich is a first-tier poet
With a Greek nose, sharp mind
And a thin figure of a runner
A veritable cipher 1
Or a vector with a one-sided arrow
Drawn by a hurrying professor of physics
Long ago she has spiked my heart
Of an old literature fan
With every her line
One after the other as I was reading

For the task of poetry
Katia is saying
Is not to build a smooth fence
In front of the reader
Or erect a crystalline pyramid
For him to contemplate
As some strong poets
Resembling the letter A are doing
And not to illustrate banal truths
With an elaborate metaphor
But to touch him and hook him
So that he'd shake up
As a bull with banderillas
Would jump of excitement
And desire of a new activity
So that his conscience would feather
Like a hair dress of an Indian chieftain
Would become like a steering-wheel of many directions

Katia is despising all these fences and barriers
She is running above them like an arrow
As a champion-lightning
So great is the force of her word striking the imagination
The force of both Russian and English word
And her unruly whistle is filling the canvasses

This woman is a fine lever
To turn the world of poetry upside down
In particular the English-speaking poetry
To guide this heavy ship
Out of the 100-year old stagnation bay
Cure its arrhythmia
So that it would go full throttle

If there were a point of support
That is already in fact
Her almanac 'Fulcrum'
A literary pivot point
Installed by her in the space of New England
Together with her team-mate and husband
Poet Philip Nikolayev

New York,22 September 2014