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Now I'm going up from the bottom

Excerpt from

Translated by Rosemarie Bergeron, Ketchikan

One Sentence

When I was a child and payed faith to the talks of others
when the earth was round and I fell back
on her again and again and I sensed
eternaty when I contempllated
on languages or the largest number
what the longest word would be called and what does it mean
where the spoken words go after they are expressed
where do thoughts stay after thinking and what does it mean
that each one has to carry her own luggage
and if in that luggage maybe is containes the contemplation
and I demanded impatiently
the one sign, the solution of all riddles.

Reviews

Her poetry is sensitive, detailed, interwoven, expressive and substantial, acrobatic, artistic, intellectual, polished, sophisticated, exquisit, original and imaginative. She creates a colorful and picturesque firework of ideas. The poems, which are philosophically inspired and existentialist oriented, are characterized by an extreme abbreviation. The author deconstructs traditional topoi, clichés and patterns and reveals the deep dimensions of new virtual realities. The lyric is psychologically exiting and seems at times Kafkaesque and enigmatic-cryptic. Phantasmagoric idylls and bucolic word-landscapes are created. The poetess of illusion and desillusionment with her strong desire for revelation takes inventory without mercy. In the world of her imagination she lets things speak for itself. In the style of Derrida, powerful expressions  of revelation are happening. Also silly and humorous nonsense and comedy in the shape of surepointed rhymes belong to Ute M. Pfeiffer's considerable repertoire.

 

Her prose is visual, lively, fluid and exciting. It is also characterized by a strong narrative pull with revealing flashbacks. The artist offers coherent psychograms and shows herself through deep background reflections of time and society. She turns with a sharp tongue against militarisme and the destruction of the enviroment. She is highly conscious of the problems of our time.

Lutz Gallinat

freelance journalist, musicologist and special critic,

July 30, 2021

A really literary discovery is definitely Ute M. Pfeiffer, whose „Margarethe“ is not only striking in terms of typography; rarely does a simple dialogue narrative grasp the heart of the listener so directly.

​

Augsburger Allgemeine, July 19, 2000

About me: Ute M. Pfeiffer

​

  • Studied at University of Tübingen: German and Geography

  • 39 years teaching in Schleswig-Holstein
     

  • Since 1998 publications of lyrics and shortstories in magazines and anthologies

  • Single publications: „Fagerhaug Poems“, 2003 RAKE Publisher,
    „Jetzt steig ich auf vom Grund“ (Now I rise up from the ground),
    2020 poems-up

  • 1999 September: Literaturetelephone Kiel

  • 2000 December: first solo public reading in Augsburg
     

  • Directing writer workshops for youth and adults

  • Evening readings to diverse authors in Kiel's environments

  • Communityreadings in Northern Germany

  • Regional and local awords and prices

    Projects:

  • 2005: „40 years city partnership Kiel – Brest“ (France) as author from Kiel at the Festival of Literature in Brest

  • 2012: Regional Polish-German literature exchange, Lodz, Poland

  • 2014: Festival of Lyrics, Posen, Poland

  • 2015: „Lesung gegen die Festung Europa“ (Reading against Fortress Europe), together with Marlies Jensen-Leier and others

  • 2016: Lyricfestival EMIGRA, Wilnius, Lithuania

  • 2020: Travel reading „Dialog – Texte zu Jetzt und Unzeit“ (texts for Now and Wrongtime), together with Marlies Jensen-Leier, started in February at House of Literature, Kiel > youtube-video - than all public and privat readings were stopped by Corona-Lockdown

  • 2021 January: Public reading in Geschichtswerkstatt, Hamburg

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