Otto Laske

Otto Laske is a bilingual poet writing in English. Born in Oleśnica, Silesia, Poland, when it was still German, he has written poetry since age 17, initially in German, since 1965 in English. His most recent collection, entitled Edge Work: Conversations with Absence (2024-2025), centers on absence in all of its form as a well of possibilities and renewal.  The titles of his previous collections are these (1) Toenungen (Soundings), (2) Tremblings, (3) Unheard Harmonies, (4) Karman Poems, and (5) Prose Poems. A selection from the earlier collections was published under the title Silesian Language Smithy at Frieling Verlag, Berlin, Germany, in 2022 (ISBN 9-783828037298). Otto combines in his work European and American traditions, now naturally blending them in the spirit of American poetry since W. C. Williams and D. Levertov. He strives for a poetry of enactment rather than declaration, finding musicality to be a non-negotiable aspect of poetry.

Audio of 2019 poetry reading: https://archive.gloucesterwriters.org/wp...  Arts websites: www.ottolaske.com, Visual art: https://www.saatchiart.com/olaske?srslti...