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Peck Me Up, My Wing
Poetry. Hailed as the grande dame of post-modern German poetry, Friederike Mayrocker has been an innovator for over forty years. Born in 1924, in the 1950s Mayrocker became involved with the Vienna Group, whose members met to discuss, collaborate and experiment in poetry and theater. Translated by Mary Burns who comments about Mayrocker: Translation of her work involves dealing with dual-language cross-overs, dream words, inventions and unusual usages, and alliterations with overtones which are difficult to bring fom one language to another. (Translator's Note)
41 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
4 people want to read
About the author
Friederike Mayröcker
110 books54 followersFriederike Mayröcker (born 20 December 1924 in Vienna) is an Austrian poet. From 1946 to 1969 Mayröcker was an English teacher at several public schools in Vienna. In 1969 she took a release from working as a teacher and in 1977 she retired early.
She started writing as a 15-year-old. In 1946, she meet Otto Basil who published some of her first works in his avant-garde journal Plan. Mayröcker's poems were published a few years later by renowned literary critic Hans Weigel. She was eventually introduced to the Wiener Gruppe, a group of mostly surrealist and expressionist Austrian authors.
Friederike Mayröcker is recognized as one of the most important contemporary Austrian poets. She also had success with her prose and radio plays. Four of them she wrote together with Ernst Jandl, with whom she lived together from 1954 until his death in 2000.
Her prose is often described as autofictional, since Mayröcker uses quotes of private conversations and excerpts from letters and diaries in her work.
Mayröcker describes her working process as follows: "I live in pictures. I see everything in pictures, my complete past, memories are pictures. I transform pictures into language by climbing into the picture. I walk into it until it becomes language."
A German biographical movie documenting Mayröcker's life and work was released in 2008
She started writing as a 15-year-old. In 1946, she meet Otto Basil who published some of her first works in his avant-garde journal Plan. Mayröcker's poems were published a few years later by renowned literary critic Hans Weigel. She was eventually introduced to the Wiener Gruppe, a group of mostly surrealist and expressionist Austrian authors.
Friederike Mayröcker is recognized as one of the most important contemporary Austrian poets. She also had success with her prose and radio plays. Four of them she wrote together with Ernst Jandl, with whom she lived together from 1954 until his death in 2000.
Her prose is often described as autofictional, since Mayröcker uses quotes of private conversations and excerpts from letters and diaries in her work.
Mayröcker describes her working process as follows: "I live in pictures. I see everything in pictures, my complete past, memories are pictures. I transform pictures into language by climbing into the picture. I walk into it until it becomes language."
A German biographical movie documenting Mayröcker's life and work was released in 2008
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December 3, 2012
The title poem and "14 Mirror Texts" are top notch skoigling, but the rest of the poems in this small book aren't that intriguing compared to the other excellent stuff available in other english collections of Mayrocker (With each clouded peak, the Vienna Group selections, etc.).
The title poem is a "guide to poetic deportment" and really gets a good flap going when it becomes a series of exhortations: "Write hongkong five times! Treat your audience to a couple of theoretical remarks! Execute by firing squad! Burp like a turnip!"
Yes, I will go fishing later.
the stuff in 'mail art' is interesting b/c it seems more like straightforward artist statements: "since my idea of the poetic presupposes the gift for a feeling of congruent oneness with all living creatures, I am finally faced with the following questions: to what extent have a I succeeded in transposing into language, with the greatest precision, the traces impressed on me by world and life?"
so my notes in the back of the book read: feelings - so tiring, inefficient, unproductive, bad for business; expose yourself to rage (be naked in front of the angry)
in Mayrocker's "14 mirror texts" she numbers and describes several mirrors. my favorite is '#4 obscenities mirror':
if you haven't done it yet / let us help you start today
you're invited to inspect / our gala wallpaper array!
jolly jolly / the exploded eggs!
The title poem is a "guide to poetic deportment" and really gets a good flap going when it becomes a series of exhortations: "Write hongkong five times! Treat your audience to a couple of theoretical remarks! Execute by firing squad! Burp like a turnip!"
Yes, I will go fishing later.
the stuff in 'mail art' is interesting b/c it seems more like straightforward artist statements: "since my idea of the poetic presupposes the gift for a feeling of congruent oneness with all living creatures, I am finally faced with the following questions: to what extent have a I succeeded in transposing into language, with the greatest precision, the traces impressed on me by world and life?"
so my notes in the back of the book read: feelings - so tiring, inefficient, unproductive, bad for business; expose yourself to rage (be naked in front of the angry)
in Mayrocker's "14 mirror texts" she numbers and describes several mirrors. my favorite is '#4 obscenities mirror':
if you haven't done it yet / let us help you start today
you're invited to inspect / our gala wallpaper array!
jolly jolly / the exploded eggs!
Displaying 1 of 1 review