Pasakos Is Cemento [Tales from the cement]

LIBROFirst edition.A good to very good copy.The second collection of avant-garde poems by Šimkus, founder, editor and writer of the magazine «Trečias Frontas». 1000 copies were printed, according to the National Library of Lithuania record. Since the opening poem, «Programa», what catches the eye is a strong modernist imaginary (factories, offices, urban landscape details, «Aš programą iš plieno atlieju» [I have a program of steel castings, p. 5]) employed to convey political and nationalist messages, with references to the Bolshevik mith (e.g. the metaphor «kaip bolševikų šaudomi buržujai» [as the Bolsheviks shot bourgeois, p. 7]). But also lyrical and intimate verses can be found, often enlivened by a constant reference to a strictly contemporary, pop-urban imaginary (traffic lights, sirens, robots, machines, offices, chimneys.). One of the longer poems, divided into two rooms, is entitled «Apie raštinę [The Office]», and it is all about dehumanized life of the modern work, a sort of “tertiary nightmare”. Another poem entitled «Apie kubišką meilę [Cubital love]» mentions lead triangles, aluminium cubes and «dynamic machines». The ending poem is dedicated to the renown Lithuanian realist writer Petras Cvirka (1909-1947), who collaborated extensively to «Trečias Frontas». Remarkable the stunning art work by JJ Burba to the front cover, a modern city landscape stylized as a rationalist/constructivist/futurist composition.Salaris, Futurisms in the World, p. 674