The accomplished poet, translator, author, and editor George Szirtes was born in Budapest and raised in London. Seven of his poems appear in the February 2008 issue of Poetry magazine as the featured “Portfolio.” Each of the poems responds to one photograph included in an exhibition at the Barbican in London entitled In the Face of History: European Photographers in the Twentieth Century.

These poems are lovely. They are spare but powerful, simply-stated but profound. Whether a four-part consideration of latrines  (one part for each soldier in the photo), or a heartbreaking lyric, or a villanelle, or an instance of mirror-image language, or a depiction of all the pathos that is present but unseen in one particular photo,  these poems are small graces. The voice in each is tender, confiding, knowing, saddened. I may never forget this line: “Were I to fall in love all over again, it would be / with this low ceiling…” (from “Doisneau: Underground Press”).

Few print poetry magazines reproduce the specific artworks to which their published ekphrastic poems respond. This issue of Poetry is an exception. For each of Mr. Szirtes’s poems, the related photograph appears on the facing page. As a result, the magazine provides a rare opportunity for the reader to compare the poem with its source of inspiration. 

The titles of the poems in the “Portfolio” cite the name of each photographer. The titles are–
“Kertesz: Latrine”
“Ross: Children of the Ghetto”
“Ross: Yellow Star”"Doisneau: Underground Press”
“Sudek: Tree”
“Petersen: Kleichen and a Man”
“Kolar: Housing Estate”