Soul Estates: Poems by Jiri Jirasek

In this moving collection, "SOUL ESTATES", the intense Czech poet, Jiri Jirasek, invites the reader to enter four different and deeply personal soul domains. Part 1, Fawn Interludes, is a country of flowering meadows and whispering streams, an ideal setting for the delicate awakening of the senses and the first flush of young passion. In sharp contrast Part 2, Collateral Love, is a desolate habitat, a drab sweep of moorland, a place of solitary brooding and regret. In Part 3, Subtle Fires, one could imagine a lush tropical island, a playground for the unrestrained freedom of mature sexuality and complex passion, striving towards love. Part 4, Soul Asymptotes, moves to another realm, the heights and depths of the soul in a cosmos of elusive meaning. The key to understanding this last section is in its title, an "asymptote" in math being a line or curve closely approaching another line, but never touching it as they go to infinity. In the language of this poet, wisdom and love are soul asymptotes that never attain fulfillment.