No Day Without is a lyrical chronicle of the past two years – personal, intimate and at the same time Ilma Rakusa’s most political book. From October 2020 to February 2022, hardly a day goes by for her without a poem.
What has happened during this time: the ongoing Corona pandemic, the retaking of Kabul by the Taliban, the suppression of the democracy movement in Belarus and, most recently, Russia’s terrible war against Ukraine. Ilma Rakusa is a cosmopolitan, a femme de lettre and an expert on Eastern Europe. The fact that these horrific and shocking events do not leave her untouched.
With all the upsetting events, it is a balm for the reading soul that there are also many other gems in this book that reflect impressions of the moment, dream protocols, sensual descriptions of nature, sounds and lights, but also fleeting thoughts and intimate remembrances—subtle observations of the ephemeral captured in pure poetry.
»Luminous poems by a great enchantress, written with a light florid soul, dreamlike, confident, playful, graceful and rich in mystery, even in the face of the darkest days of our New Present.« (Clemens J. Setz)