The poet Martin Piekar – Connecting the inside to the outside

Those around him often found the resulting poems unwieldy, strange and sometimes unreadable. But Piekar resolutely continued along the path of the thinker and writer. He studied philosophy and history in Frankfurt and attended the “sexyunderground” meetings, which are still organised by the Literaturhaus Frankfurt to promote young literary talent. Above all, he continued to hone his style and also submitted some of his texts. Publications in the literary journals etcetera and Federwelt encouraged him to take part in competitions. 

2012 would be a special year for Martin Piekar. If writing poetry were seen as a career path, one could speak of a breakthrough. Firstly, Piekar was chosen to take part in the Wolfenbüttel Literature Lab, where he could work on and discuss texts with other authors in a professional atmosphere. Better still: he was one of the finalists of the open mike literature competition, which is organised once a year by the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin. Being one of the 21 finalists means already having won over the jury with literary work from among hundreds of submissions, an achievement that ensures visibility in the literary world. The open mike attracts agents, publishers, literary critics and successful authors for whom the competition has served as a springboard in previous years. Martin Piekar read from his poetry cycles “Bastard” and “Bedürfnis nach dir und Kirschblüte” (“A need for you and cherry blossoms”). For example, lines like these:

Ich fühle mich so Bastard, wenn ich träume. 
Nur Tunnelschachttage. Und nachts sind
meine Fantasien ans Hirninterieur genagelt.

(“I feel so bastard when I dream.
Tunnel shaft days only. And at night
my fantasies are nailed to the inside of my brain.”)

Jury and audience were thrilled. Martin Piekar won the prize in the poetry category and was approached by publishers and agents immediately after his appearance. However, it would be another two years before his first volume of poetry entitled “Bastard Echo” was published by Verlagshaus Berlin. Piekar’s voice was heard. He won other awards such as the Irseer Pegasus and the Alfred Gruber Prize in Meran/Merano and published another volume of poetry in 2018: “AmokPerVers”. His material remains as diverse as it is personal. When asked about his topics, Piekar replies: “Everything that confuses me, fascinates me, leaves me doubtful: people. People and their perpetual struggle with their own emotions, feelings and reason.” In his eyes, feelings have long been an important political issue in our society and are worth exploring poetically. He says: “These politics of sensitivities can be worked out and scrutinised very well using language. So my material is the spoken word of people who express themselves, reveal themselves, enter into communication, try to be themselves.”

The significance of his Polish background for his writing became steadily clearer to Piekar over the years. “The Polish language had a huge impact on me”, he says today. “It’s like an elegantly meandering river. I see the German language as a solid paved path. When writing poetry, it’s important to master both paths, the laid-out path and the path of simply letting yourself drift.” 

Piekar also sees the experience of being a white foreigner as an important part of his inspiration. He says that amongst his white friends, he was one of the few who knew what it was like to sweat in an immigration office. His family history with the traumas of war, imprisonment and flight has also left its mark on Piekar. He realises that freedom and democracy cannot be taken for granted, but have been hard-won, and in our day and age may have to be defended just as arduously.