Vít Slíva: Time with Eternity

–Czechia

Born 1951 in Hradec nad Moravicí. Of three brothers. He studied Czech and Latin at the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University in Brno. He works as a teacher. He has published fifteen collections of poetry (first 1984: Nepokoj hodin [The Clock Balance Wheel], most recent 2021: Bóje [Buoys]). He formed the School of Poets in Brno’s district Královo pole. He won Magnesia Litera for poetry (2003) for his collection Bubnování na sudy [Drumming on Barrels] (2002). The Dictionary of Czech Literature after 1945 writes about him: “From the very beginning, it is clear that Slíva's poetics originated in the context of the poetic work of František Halas and Vladimír Holan, in the theme, the emphasis is on the weight and pain of life and love, on nothingness, ruin and death, the binding nature of the word. The landscape of his poems refers to specific places, but concreteness is lifted by the vertical to open and infinite spaces, where time also intersects with eternity."