Joanna KurowskaThe Wall & BeyondLittle Elru TX: elrotio Publishing, 2013

oanna Kurowska's collection of poems llreWatt & Beyond(2013) evokes avariety ofimagery and emotions in readers with itsdiverse cont€Nrt. Some are comforting and

remind one ofthe innocenc€ of childlike spirit'Others haken upon perhaps Kurowska's owndeepest secrets and fears which are never fullydisclosed to the reader, but nevertheless allowthe reader to identify with her in recalling orreliving one's own anxieties. Most poignantly,however, Kurowska invites rethinking of a wall,its solid or abstract prese,nce, and the severalconnotations this presence carries.

Kruowska describes, poeticizes, probegmd sometimes bursts through walls in thiscollection. The poem "'IJnd€tr Atlas' Cafe," forexample, emphasizes f1e imFosition of a wallerected by extemal sources, like other peopleand institutions, into or perhaps even around thesubject like a fence. In a state of decling theworld in this poern is porhayed as restrictive andconstrictive wittl its "homes built inward"bearing "negative numbetrs" when "time revertedto its mythical beginnings". The thread of self-reflection that runs through this collectionincluding this poe,m, howwer, ernploys ag€ncyas a fonn of resistance in ttrinking into, through,and beyond boundaries. In the s"me poenl sucha limited world cannot interfere with theimagination of what could be. In a somewhatclandestine way, the'wd' in this.poem "rejectedthe world starting with the word Yes" as if towelcome and even imagine the forbidden: "weAlked of unknown freedom...our drsams wereconnected to nothing, so the wind blowingbackward carried them awa1r". The la* stanza ofthis poem signals a change where *in the end" ofsome prwious state, "on$ No stayed with us" asif a grip continues to mark this unknown groupof people suddenly free to look outward"together at the world."

After reading the poems, the questionremains: what are boundaries? Joanna Kurowskathrows markers of de,marcation into question.What makes here separate and thus differentfrom there? Kurowskatakes readers along on ajourney in her poerns to overcome real andimagine4 external and internal hindrmces inorder to reconsider what is possible. Walls mayafter all reflect inhibitions and fear created allono one's own. Obstacles one expects to findmay in fact be easily overcome or may not evenexist at all. In this way, Kurowska's poernsencourage readers to be bold, take on novelopportunities, and re-think what is supposedlypermane,ff and insurmountable.l,anrm Horert is a PhD sfudent of Gennanic Lotguages andLiteratures at lhe University of lllinois at Urbm*Chanpaign.Her carrmt projecl explores contemporary Gerrnotliterafiire's tro*national memory of the Communist post informetEast Germury, Polotd, otd other lormer reptblics of the USSRthrough modes of displacement od spatial imaginaries-

The Penwood Review, Spring 2014, Volume 18, Number I

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