​Poems by Iryna Vikyrchak 

Originally Written in English
 
You are a poet, they say, we expect you
to give us answers
you are a poet, they say, explain us
everything with a poem
a painful one, strong, render your loss
and grieve over your dead
with some new metaphors
make the words in your language meet
in the order they’ve never met before
you are a poet, they say.
 
What can I answer them, as a poet, a woman,
a friend who lost their friends
to the monster of war?
Who has friends and friends of friends
who will never return?
Who left their home libraries burn
with the buildings destroyed by the lethal arms
so they themselves can flee and live?
Homeless, bookless, wordless, but yet alive.
 
Who am I as a poet, not coming from the regions affected,
a war victim impostor, an empath
with cinematographic imagination
the free verses in my head,
not giving myself the right to speak
on the war that is not even mine.
 
You are a poet, they say,
you come from THAT country
we expect you to be giving answers
to write poems, you know.
 
How can I answer them with a poem,
when anxiety cut off my voice,
played on my vocal cords, ate up my words?
Haven’t you read it all in the
New York Times, in The Guardian and also
your local press?
Haven’t you used your empathy and
some visuals from movies you’ve seen?
Would you like me to send you a link?
 
I am not even writing this poem
in the language of victims
although I should
for it’s all them who are seeking the answers,
for it’s not up to me to know any.
 
 
 
Watch From a Distance

A war
is a very productive
state
for a poet –
gives many new
motives
to write

​Not a distant, impartial
war

You need enemies in
your country
missiles that hit your
home,
friends who become
refugees,
your family members
in shelters.

​Eating your soul,
taking your tears
Costing you nerves,
cord tight

​You need shelling of
civilian people
gunfire on evacuating
families
a bomb on a
kindergarten

​A war
is a very productive
state
for a poet –
watching from the
distance
still so many new
motives to write:
anger and love,
weakness and
strength,
adrenaline rushing
unity, strength
animalistic fear
not least –
​Helplessness.

​Iryna Vikyrchak (1988) is a Ukrainian poetess, writer and culture manager. She has directed and curated numerous literary festivals and events in Ukraine and Europe. She worked as head of the National Desk of Creative Europe in Ukraine (2016-2017) and as an assistant to the Nobel Prize Laureate Olga Tokarczuk (2019-2021). She is the author of three poetry collections, the latest being Algometria, published in Kyiv in 2021.
She is a member of PEN-Ukraine and a PhD student of the Wroclaw University in Poland. She writes in Ukrainian and English. 

---

---