Comments for page "Crystalline Petrichor (Strichtarn)" http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/forum/t-16495715/crystalline-petrichor-strichtarn Posts in the discussion thread "Crystalline Petrichor (Strichtarn)" Fri, 07 Aug 2026 11:13:15 +0000 http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/forum/t-16495715#post-6633039 (no title) http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/forum/t-16495715/crystalline-petrichor-strichtarn#post-6633039 Mon, 26 Aug 2024 23:07:47 +0000 Maxyfran73 7498739 Holy shit the momentum this piece has; it is exactly as the image presents, and that's just impressive, really.

Loved it all. Easy +1~

]]> http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/forum/t-16495715#post-6262375 (no title) http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/forum/t-16495715/crystalline-petrichor-strichtarn#post-6262375 Sun, 03 Dec 2023 16:26:51 +0000 FleshMaddAvalon 7504782 Ripping through my mind
Fucking excellent piece. Your poetry inspires me to create my own, in all it's glory. Fantastic.

]]> http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/forum/t-16495715#post-6262303 (no title) http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/forum/t-16495715/crystalline-petrichor-strichtarn#post-6262303 Sun, 03 Dec 2023 14:40:59 +0000 NotAnOligarch 7466531 As I stated, I love this. Very much. I am glad to see it on the site!
Well done, well done. +1!

]]> http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/forum/t-16495715#post-6261919 (no title) http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/forum/t-16495715/crystalline-petrichor-strichtarn#post-6261919 Sun, 03 Dec 2023 04:35:35 +0000 lzhoudidion 6662087 Thank you, Zip for your kind words. Hope you're doing well.

]]> http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/forum/t-16495715#post-6261788 (no title) http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/forum/t-16495715/crystalline-petrichor-strichtarn#post-6261788 Sun, 03 Dec 2023 02:01:08 +0000 zipzipskins 5558639 so incredibly deliberate and evocative. immense and also intensely personal, almost intimate at times, as the best poetry often is.

fabulous.

]]> http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/forum/t-16495715#post-6261778 Tired, but content. http://wanderers-library.wikidot.com/forum/t-16495715/crystalline-petrichor-strichtarn#post-6261778 Sun, 03 Dec 2023 01:29:07 +0000 lzhoudidion 6662087

"Your place is warm, but the streets are waiting
for our footprints.
On my boots there’s a dust of stars.
A soft armchair, checkered plaid.
A trigger not pulled in time.
Such a sunny day—in blinding dreams."
-
Victor Tsoi--'Grupa Krovi'.

Thank you to NotAnOligarchNotAnOligarch, meltedbeemeltedbee and my offsite friends Vince and Pat for the crit. An piece of Iron-Curtain noir poetry, inspired in part by the real examples translated and published in the West at the height of the Cold War.

Image credits (former picture was taken by CGP Grey): (1).

New image as of 4/18/2024 is artwork drawn by IRL friend D. Vega (also known by his artist's title A.A, reduced to an acronym because it's full name that isn't exactly…WL appropriate)

The term ‘Strichtarn’ refers to the camouflage developed by the military of the German Democratic Republic (GDR)—better known as former East Germany. The literal translation of the pattern is ‘line camouflage', strich being tied closely to its English counterpart, stripe, but certain Western observers would ditch that term in favor of the more descriptive ‘rain camo’, for the way the stripes were spaced, rounded like dirty raindrops being exposed by a slow shutter—embodied in the manner guards positioned on the Berlin Wall and underground in the U-Bahn stations moved. Plodding. Meticulous. Languid. Kalashnikovs held low at their waist. They were not meant to keep people out, but in.

Juwel cigarettes were an popular East German brand—and being the cheapest: 2.50 marks for a pack of twenty—were often the only marquee accessible to the workingman. The PM Makarov was an pistol developed by the Soviet Union which was subsequently copied and mass produced by its satellite states.

An pictogram of the average East German guard

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