(born in 1963 in Częstochowa) after having graduated from Polish philology in Cracow, he settled in this city, but he commutes to Warsaw. An original poet and non-standard researcher of the Old Polish language, outspoken publicist and a precise literature reviewer, author of novels, film scriptwriter, and opera librettist. Co-founder of ‘brulion’ (a Polish language quarterly literary magazine published in Poland from 1986 to 1999), director of major institutions. One of the most interesting personalities of contemporary Polish culture.

In the first book published in 1990 entitled Wiersze (Poems), the young poet presents himself as a mature European who knows what an elegy or an eclogue are and who is friends with Dante and mocks Goethe; nonetheless, the volume Nieudana pielgrzymka (Failed Pilgrimage), published three years later, will be presented in a form of a lyrical diary of a ‘barbarian’, who bellicosely accepts this nickname, which is used itself by the poets to define themselves in a famous anthology of the unnamed Przyszli barbarzyńcy (The Barbarians Have Arrived). Krzysztof Koehler stood out from them not only because of his romantically baroque diction, ostentatiously independent of prevailing media slang, but also as he did not succumb to the old temptations of a new privacy, nor to reviving linguistic games, nor to toxic or healing flavours of foreignness. It turned out that it is the tradition, this native one, discovered in a personal experience, that will make the poet’s voice heard in the tumult of postmodernism. In this narrative poem will be revealed the poet’s tendency to compose series, to merge subsequent poems into a form of a lyrical diary arranging experiences, a poetical silva rerum, a notebook, a blog. Arranged in the fortunes of war, put into the ruts of everyday adventures with temporality, these notes, a poem after poem, drift toward... illumination. The poet’s path has no aim, but it offers its traveller benign troubles, each of which brings him to a higher level of spiritual experience.

The next volumes, including the extensive selection Na końcu długiego pola (At the End of the Long Field) from 1998, will bring the same recurring question about the metaphysical dimension of one's fate and the sense of poetic vocation. At the same time, the author's self-portrait will emerge more and more clearly: not overly sensitive, simpering in front of a mirror, but an artist of a strong personality who does not hesitate to leave his signature on the documents of the era in order to engage in a debate about the shape of Polish spirituality and Western civilization. A personal confession, as a statement in the public matter, resembles that of Mickiewicz, intellectual lyricism takes up the diction of Norwid and Herbert, and the author himself confesses to his fascination for the civic poetry of baroque chroniclers of the era, ones such as  Wespazjan Kochowski or Wacław Potocki. Partyzant prawdy (The Truth Guerrilla), from 1996, will gather religiously open poems, they will naturally return to the poet's later work as a daily, grey prayer.

But in miniature landscapes, cut out in the middle of a white page, there is no silence; even in the most intimate poems, Koehler seems to speak to others, intimately and frankly, with the full voice of a singer professing faith in the power of words and a trustworthy testimony. This sonic dimension of the poems places them unexpectedly in the American Dylan-styled ballad movement or rap manifestoes by the local youth. Thus, the topic of the subsequent volume from 2003 is not a surprise, Trzecia część (Third part) will treat about self-awareness of the writer, deep-dive into the language, not its dismantlement however, but an attempt to squeeze every last drop out of the words, get something more from them than just meaning and expression. Therefore, the eponymous ‘part’ added is simply poetry, non-systematic, anarchistic speech, above divisions into structural oppositions, speech that is admittedly tied, but as if openly unfinished, raw. In 2008 comes another volte-face: the volume Porwanie Europy (The Abduction of Europe) consists of nearly only long narrative poetry, written in discursive language, telling stories, raising political and historiosophical topics. The elegance of a classic, the tension of a mystic, the criticism of a linguist vanished somewhere; what is left is a poet-citizen, the biographer of the epoch not embarrassed by opinion journalism. In the volume Od morza do morza (From Sea to Sea) from 2011, there will be place for one’s own breakdowns and doubts as well as for a powerful duel with Nothingness, and finally a series of reflections on the Smolensk catastrophe. In the latest volume, only just announced, there can already be heard purely resonant biblical tones…

In the 2002 anthology Słuchaj mnie Sauromata (Listen to me, Sarmatian) was published an authorial selection of poetry depicting Polish everyday life in the glory days of the Republic of Poland, whereas in 2016 will be issued Palus Sarmatica, a daring story about Sarmatia in the form of a dictionary derived from a blog, a true silva rerum filled with social stories, poems’ analyses, historical polemics, political commentaries, and finally personal memoirs of the author. The year 2015 brought us the novel Wnuczka Raguela (Raguel’s Granddaughter), a simple story about a couple of homeless juveniles with a child, who try to settle into each other and want to create a community by overcoming their own weakness and other people’s violence. This will be another version of the question about the inner strength of a man, the value of interpersonal relationships, and the secret of the gift of life. It is not sentimentalism of the intelligentsia that determines compassion for the protagonists, but the sober experience of the existence at the level of physical effort of being. Krzysztof Koehler, a participant in mountain marathons, managed to develop an unusually original for the times role for a modern poet, who does not want to be solely the creator of works of art. Koehler’s work as a lecturer, promoter and a researcher of Old Polish culture, co-creation of documentaries, engaged literary criticism, journalism and TV opinion journalism, and even conscious engagement in public functions, all of the above constitutes a consistently developed attitude of an artist responsible for the community.

– Artur Grabowski

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Wiersze, Oficyna Literacka, Kraków 1990.
• Nieudana pielgrzymka, Brulion, Kraków-Warszawa 1993.
• Partyzant prawdy, Arcana/Fundacja Brulionu, Kraków-Warszawa 1996 (poems).
• Na krańcu długiego pola i inne wiersze z lat 1988-1998, Fronda, Warszawa 1998.
• Słuchaj mię, Sauromatha. Antologia poezji sarmackiej, Arcana, Kraków 2002.
• Trzecia część, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 2003 (poems).
• Stanisław Orzechowski i dylematy humanizmu renesansowego, Arcana/Uniwersytet Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego, Kraków-Warszawa 2004.
• Domek szlachecki w literaturze polskiej epoki klasycznej, Collegium Columbinum, Kraków 2005.
• Porwanie Europy, Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Sopotu, Sopot 2008 (poems).
• Od morza do morza, Wydawnictwo Wojewódzkiej Biblioteki Publicznej i Centrum Animacji Kultury, Poznań 2011 (poems).
• Boży podżegacz. Opowieść o Piotrze Skardze, Wydawnictwo Sic!, Narodowe Centrum Kultury, Warszawa 2012.
• Wnuczka Raguela, Wydawnictwo M, Kraków 2014 (novel).
• Palus Sarmatica, Muzeum Historii Polski, Wydawnictwo Sic!, Warszawa 2016.
• Kraj Gerazeńczyków, Arcana, Kraków 2017 (poems).