In his debut pamphlet, Michał Choiński offers his readers an intriguing “unwrapping” of the human body and desire. Within ten poems, the resears discover a “desperate equilibrium of flesh,” but also an inevitable longing for closeness, and its ultimate deconstruction. Strikingly evocative, the poems move between religious, geographical and cultural contexts, together telling a story of the carnal rise and fall, in which hope functions as a phantom limb.

“These cool–toned and sharp-edged poems anatomize the intersection of bodies and hopes, rituals, fears and discomforts. Their forensic voices seek to measure and document, then surprise with their uneasy willingness to turn the knife on themselves.”– Judy Brown

“In Michał Choiński’s poems there’s a sense of things being held at arm’s length, perhaps for inspection, or perhaps to control a corresponding emotion. His subject is often the body, and how we represent ourselves – our birthmarks and scars, passions and frailties. Choiński is a precise and honest observer, recording the power of first encounters, the scent of skin or chopped trees, the salt of tears. In his poems, the accumulation of small moments yields greater comprehension.”– Tamar Yoseloff

Read the reviews in Neon Books and London Grip Poetry.