Ilya Kaminsky emigrated to the United States from Odessa in 1993, and brought with him the haunting memories that inform his poetry and prose. In his latest gift to us, Musica Humana, Kaminsky takes us by the hand and leads us gently through a poetic minefield of hushed passion, flowing spiritualism, and bittersweet remembrance, interleaved with stirring and perceptive prose. His writing seems as effortless as breathing, yet each word is perfectly right and flows upon the next like a wave licking the shore. Two pages into the book, I was captivated—by the end, I was enraptured, and I must warn here that the end comes too soon. Natalia, I offer you two cups of air/ in which you dip your little finger, lick it dry. Kaminsky's verse is like the air he bequeathed, but it is air dense with classical allusions and astute recordings of life.

Once or twice in his life, a man
is peeled like apples.

What's left is a voice
that splits his being

down to the center.
We see: obscenity, fright, mud

but there is joy of shape, there is
always
more than one silence.

Kaminsky's silence is as compelling as his verse. Deaf since the age of four, Kaminsky speaks of having learned to see voices. What he sees, in memories of his native country and in America, is translated on the page in vivid, stunning passages that elicit the full range of emotions. Kaminsky writes of life as an exile, but his conflicting grief and joy speak to anyone who has ever known displacement. I give his work my highest recommendation, and look forward to seeing every future offering of this original, talented author.

Interested in learning more about the wonderful book of poems? Click HERE to purchase Ilya's work online.

Author Bio: Ilya Kaminsky was born in Odessa, formerly the Soviet Union, and moved to the U.S. in 1993. He has won the National Russian Essay Contest, the National Shepardi Prize for Poetry, and most recently the Ruth Lilly Fellowship from Poetry magazine. In 1999–2000, Ilya served as a George Bennett Fellow Writer-in-Residence at Phillips Exeter Academy. His manuscript, “From the Province of Gratitude,” was a finalist for the National Poetry Series and the Walt Whitman Award. He has also received the Florence Kahn Memorial Award and the Milton Center’s Award for Excellence in Writing. Current work appears or is forthcoming in New Republic, American Literary Review, DoubleTake, Salmagundi, Southwest Review, Tikkun, The American Writing, Literary Review, and Mars Hill Review. Kaminsky also writes poetry in Russian. His work in that language was recently chosen for 'Bunker Poetico" at the 2001 Venice Biennial.