Through the time thicket

The title of the volume is already characteristic of Norbert Lüthy's poems: as straightforward as it appears, it reveals itself to be rich in implications upon closer inspection. In an era that believes it is at the end of history, a word like 'Zeitendickicht' unexpectedly forms an antithesis; it counters the belief in progress, which sees us moving in a straight line from a comprehensible present to a promising future, with a very different perspective: that times are intertwined like an inextricable web – often more strongly shaped by the overlooked roots of the past than modern consciousness is willing to admit. Yet, the title of the volume also speaks of something that seems to pass through or emerge from the inextricability of this thicket, a trace that seeks to be rediscovered and which the poems pursue. First and foremost, there is the language itself.