- GRÄF, Dieter M.
- Dieter M. Gräf
was born in Ludwigshafen in 1960, and has lived in Cologne since
1991. His poetry has earned several awards such as he Rolf-Dieter-Brinkmann
stipend in 1995, writer-in-residence at the Villa Aurora in Los
ngeles in 1999, and writer-in-residence at the German Festivals
in india in 2001. His poems illustrate how complex poems unfold
a fuller meaning in the interaction between the "main text"
and a subtext that the author supplies in his annotations (contained
in the collection of poetry). For example, the poem "Todt-Frondt"
receives additional depth through two quotations from studies on
an archaeology of bunkers (such as the Nazi bunkers at the Atlantic)
and on the fear of death. Both elements come together in the poem's
German title: Todt is an archaic spelling of death
(hence the English title), and it is the proper name of a Nazi functionary,
who was involved in the construction of the bunkers at the Atlantic
Ocean. His poetry also explores myths and everyday life; at theri
intersection he engaes in mythmaking, for example, beginning with
ancient myths, such as Humbaba from the epic of Gilgamesh in his
collection Treibender Kopf [1997, Floating Head], and extending
to ancient places, such as Sinai in a poem published in his third
volume of poetry with Suhrkamp.
Ein Bild von Huwawa/Hubaba's Picture) (Frankfurt am Main:
Suhrkamp Verlag, 1997): Vol 5, No. 1
Corpus und andere Gedichte (Corpus and other poems) from
Westend (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2002): Vol.
7, No. 2/3
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