Poems by Márton Koppány (Hungary)

Published in Issue 35 of The Ofi Press. 

Born in 1953, I'm a writer and editor living in Budapest, Hungary. I started writing something that turned out to be "visual poetry" thirty years ago because by the late seventies I'd understood that if I didn’t want to give up the faint hope of communicating, I should "get rid" of my mother tongue. So the main source of my way is a deficiency, which makes things simple in some sense.

My inclinations have always directed me towards the (actual, ever-changing) limits of verbal communication. But I don't distrust/need/enjoy words more or less than the empty spaces between them, the sheet of paper they are written on, the rhythm of the turning of the pages, unknown and forgotten symbols, fragments, natural formations like clouds—each of them and any combination of them may be an invitation. When I feel easy and ready to make something, I experience their complete equivalence.