Biography of a Soul (2026)
a book of lyric poems
At a crossroad, street corner
I met him -
we shook hands, touched roots
and something like a moral imperative was conceived.
Like a seed of light
this kiss of warm knowledge
came on the lips of my blessed muse.
And how do I know these words to be true?
Her eyes were closed
when she leaned in close.
(Past Life Meeting with a Poet)
Perhaps it’s true that lyrical expressions suggest, however obliquely, something about a biography before one’s birth. Biography of a Soul is a chronological collection of poems filtered through this premise, weaving together a kinship between present and past, the living and the dead, and nature as the timeless background.
Included in this collection are twelve poems translated poems by Pavel Davydovich Kogan (1918– 1942), a Russian poet who died in the war, and someone whom the author may have met. Pavel Kogan’s granddaughter, Lyubov Summ, a writer and translator, says, “I really like the translations, how it sounds as if a young man were writing them right now, and not as tired, long ago written classics…Yes, you (Randy) and Pavel are soul mates.”
This is Randy Kohan’s seventh book of poetry. In 2019, his dual-language English-Russian collection - Hammers and Bells/ Колокола и молот - won the Best Book of Poetry Award at the Tarki-Tau Book Fair in Makhachkala, Dagestan.
Cover art by Viktoriia Moshniaha
