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Ilya Kaminsky
@ilya_poet
Author of Deaf Republic (@GraywolfPress), Dancing in Odessa (@tupelopress), and Ecco Anthology of International Poetry (@HarperCollins)
ilyakaminsky.com
Joined August 2018
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    Ilya Kaminsky
    @ilya_poet
    Feb 27, 2022
    Me, writing to an older friend in Odessa: how can I help, please let me know I really want help He writes back: Putins come and go. If you want to help, send us some poems and essays. We are putting together a literary magazine. And, that is in the middle of war. Imagine.
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    Ilya Kaminsky
    @ilya_poet
    Feb 3, 2020
    My grandmother, who was sent to Siberia for 10 yrs, said that in February, birds wld freeze to the ground. So, prisoners, who were sent to work, wld grab small birds, put them under their armpits. By the time prisoners got back to barracks, the birds would thaw out & fly away.
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    Ilya Kaminsky
    @ilya_poet
    May 17, 2019
    in 1981 census, a return was received from someone who described their profession as "sculptor of stone lions". In answer to the supplementary question "Describe what your job entails," the responder wrote: "I chip away all the stone which is not lions"
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    Ilya Kaminsky
    @ilya_poet
    Oct 17, 2020
    "Home is not where you are born. Home is where all your attempts to escape, cease." --Naguib Mahfouz
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    Ilya Kaminsky
    @ilya_poet
    May 14, 2022
    Overheard: “You will know the country you live in is in decline when majority of conversation is about its past rather than its future”
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    Ilya Kaminsky
    @ilya_poet
    Jul 12, 2020
    I see #JewishPrivilege is trending. Lots of people say WW2 was a long time ago. Well, I have a knife hole in my right side, and a memory of my apartment door in Odessa being set on fire. That is pretty recent, friends.
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    Ilya Kaminsky
    @ilya_poet
    Mar 1, 2022
    Being deaf, people ask me about silence a lot. And, now we are all watching--yes, in silence--a 30 mile long convoy heading to kill civilians. That kind of silence. So, let me say it once again, in real time: Deaf do not believe in silence. It is the creation of the hearing.
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    Ilya Kaminsky
    @ilya_poet
    Mar 6, 2022
    Yes, poetry is necessary and useful during the war. Just look:
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    Ilya Kaminsky
    @ilya_poet
    Apr 26, 2019
    "You might as well answer the door, my child, the truth is furiously knocking." — Lucille Clifton
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    Ilya Kaminsky
    @ilya_poet
    May 14, 2021
    “We have poetry / so we do not die of history." - Meena Alexander
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    Ilya Kaminsky
    @ilya_poet
    Mar 15, 2022
    Some context is useful: this is a monument to a person who wasn't just a mayor of Odesa, but who built city parks fr his own salary, who stood up to the Tsar, personally to protect Jews, who insisted that Odesa remains a free city in a country where slavery was a norm. So, yeah:
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    Tim Mak
    @timkmak
    Mar 14, 2022
    Replying to @timkmak
    This says something profound about what is important to a population. In this case cultural preservation: In this photo disseminated by Ukrainian govt, Odesa is trying to protect a monument to Duke de Richelieu with sandbags
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    Ilya Kaminsky
    @ilya_poet
    Oct 15, 2020
    "I am out with lanterns, looking for myself." — Emily Dickinson
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    Ilya Kaminsky
    @ilya_poet
    Mar 14, 2022
    Between air-raids in Kyev:
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    Ilya Kaminsky
    @ilya_poet
    Apr 8, 2019
    Of all the arts, poetry is the most economical. It;s the one which is most secret, and the one which can be done between shifts, in the hospital pantry, on the subway, and on scraps. As we reclaim our literature, poetry has been the major voice of the poor --Audre Lorde