Thin Ice

For Iryna Tsilyk, for personal reasons, the current Russian-Ukrainian war began much earlier than February 2022, as her previous book, The Depth of Field, showed. The new collection, «Thin Ice», includes poems written over the past eight years. This means that Iryna Tsilyk doesn't write much, but she knows exactly what and why she's writing.
The author explains: «Once as a child, I fearlessly walked out onto the middle of a frozen lake. Suddenly, I heard adult voices: 'What are you doing? The ice is thin there! Don't!» She draws a parallel: «During the war, we all walk on the thin ice of our incompatible experiences. It's easy to lose our balance, fall through, get hurt ourselves, or injure others with the sharp edges of our own wounds». This collection is an attempt to explore our shaky reality and carefully get to shore. The main thing is not to end up on different shores after the war from those we love. So it's worth talking to each other today, while we are — well, seemingly alive.