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Closely analyzing selected poems, this article traces the major phases of the five-decade-long career of contemporary German poet Utz Rachowski. First, East Germany’s paranoid repressive police force declared five of Rachowski’s poems to be subversive. Second, with his prison poems, Rachowski asserts his subjectivity against objectifying punishments. From this phase onward, the metaphor “poetry is a drug” helps us to understand the role of poetry for Rachowski. Third, his exile led to a sense of loss of home expressed in mature poetry. Finally, taking on responsibility for a dog during his 2012 stay in the United States reconfirmed Rachowski’s belief in trust, giving his poetry new productivity and a gentler tone. Outside his poetic career, Rachowski counsels people who have suffered under the state repressions --- Original in English.

The intent of the present interview with Utz Rachowski is to explore the poet’s drive to share his innermost thoughts in lyrical form. Specifically, Rachowski speaks about having been accused of being the alleged ring-leader of a renegade philosophy club; of his imprisonment as an enemy of the state for having written poems that were condiered subversive; about the how and why he continued to write poetry and how it has sustained him through five decades; and his experiences abroad. --- Original in English.