Collected Poems

Rainer Brambach, one of the most widely appreciated Swiss poets in the 1950s and 60s, stood his ground outside of all fashion. Marked by his disregard for material values, a profound engagement with the landscape of the Upper Rhine, and a lasting commitment to humane concerns, his poems are direct, unadorned, free of any pomp or ideology. His quiet and unspectacular images conjure up a landscape, a small rural scene, the interior of a bar or a cafe, and offer a glimpse into a depth of meaning suddenly and briefly opening up to the beholder. Brambach was, above all, an observer whose poems provide insights of deceptive simplicity which nevertheless form a poetic essence confirming the significance of this author s voice."