Grey Geese over Toronto

This poem is made up of a number of short poems – a contradictory context that comes about when writing follows the leaps of associations, the permanent change of times, the back and forth between topicality and memory. Journal-like writing that searches for the components of biography and where they appear in everyday events, in the repertoire of media and images, in manners of speaking and quotations, in past times. By tracing of his own life, the author simultaneously moves in the sphere of experiences of his contemporaries, bringing to mind a past that continues to have an effect in the here and now. A story of moods and experiences, strung together in a chain of poems that takes a whole century with it, from the turnip winter of World War I to the »Italian Week« at the supermarket around the corner. Every moment has its biography... Every situation has a story that you have to know in order to understand the whys and wherefores.

»Places and times change, stations and places, people appear and disappear. What remains are photographs, more or less well exposed. Becker knows more about these processes than anyone else, he illuminates, and many a picture, that is what he speaks of, is consigned to oblivion. And yet oblivion is not a black hole ... « Tom Schulz, Neue Zürcher Zeitung

»allusive and precisely composed, an elixir of perception, as is always the case with Becker, that is sharpened and expanded« Andreas Rossmann, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»One should have Becker’s journal poem at hand at all times to read a line or two from it.« Volker Breidecker, Süddeutsche Zeitung

»Becker is a master of detail, of close observation. He turns everyday experiences into poetic events.« Martin Oehlen, Frankfurter Rundschau

»This later work is as fresh as ever and surprises with its phrasings.« Eberhard Geisler, taz. die tageszeitung

»Becker’s poetry forms a kaleidoscope of the fleetingness we live every day.« Hans-Dieter Schütt, neues deutschland

»With Grey Geese over Toronto, Jürgen Becker managed to write a moving text that oscillates between the here and now and memory. Anyone who reads and does not forget it will see the world with different eyes.« Tobias Wenzel, NDR

»Becker’s journal poem is a text with staying power, a chronicle and a snapshot at the same time. A book about enduring, but also one that is aware of the advancing time ... « Dirk Hohnsträter, WDR