What does it mean to be a father? And what about losing your father? Nico Bleutges famous volume of poetry “sleep tree variations”.
Whether it’s the sleep someone curls up in again in the morning or the child squirming in their arms: Nico Bleutge’s new poems are characterized by a special form of corporeality. She transforms the perceptual patterns of this poet, who for a long time tended to privilege seeing, that is, the sense that keeps things at a distance in order to be able to look at them calmly. There are still many optical phenomena in these poems – clouds, sky, bird flight, the lyrical classics – and the associated urge to let our gaze wander into the distance. At the same time, however, there is a bending back towards the self, which is not just a self, but the physical closeness extended by a child.