Konrad Tademar Wilk’s 168 sonnets, written in a period of seven months in 2013, from 1 March to 30 September, are all entitled UUR with the appropriate Roman number. “UUR” means “hour” in Dutch and there are 168 hours in a week. Since each poem was written on a special date in the Catholic, Roman, Druidic, or modern calendars, these dates and commemorations are mentioned at the end of each sonnet.
The poems contain a plethora of quotations and references making their comprehension difficult for the uninformed. To somewhat clarify the complex web of allusions and multi-lingual citations, they are duly annotated. The notes include translations from Polish, Latin, French, German, Russian, Sanskrit, and other languages, as we as basic explanations about concepts referred to in the texts. However, it was deemed necessary to also provide longer commentaries for some of these poems, as their context required elucidation.
While written in response to events of their time, and firmly rooted in the year 2013, it might be said that these sonnets “traffic in time” by transcending time and bridging together worlds of myth, science, linguistic, psychology, spirituality and religion. Six sonnets from the book were nominated for the Pushcart Prize for 2025. They are reproduced below
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Trafficking in Time is a rich poetic exploration of time, history, spirituality, and human experience. Through sonnets that intertwine personal narrative with cultural memory and metaphysical inquiry, Konrad Tademar Wilk presents a complex, multifaceted meditation on existence and meaning.
— Gwendolyn Taunton,
author of Eternal Wisdom: The Esoteric Gnosis of Perennial Philosophy
KONRAD TADEMAR WILK
Konrad Tademar Wilk is an American poet living in Los Angeles. His works range from single sonnets to epic poems on themes including current events, myth, and philosophy. In addition to American subjects, his work is strongly informed by international events and history, especially those of freedom and oppression. His early childhood was spent in Poland where he was particularly influenced by the rise of the anti-communist Solidarity labor union. Following his return to the U.S., he studied philosophy and literature at Los Angeles City College where he was president of the Poet's Platform. He then went on to graduate from UCLA. His poetry book Fifty Sonnets, titles like labels only get in the way... is available for purchase on-line. Other poetry chapbooks in Polish and English, listed below are out of print.
He has appeared in Los Angeles venues such as the Onyx, Ground's Zero, Magicopolis Theater, Wilshire Art Gallery, Bolton Hall Museum, and Pig and Whistle. In 1991, he founded the Witching Hour Poetry Gathering which has met continuously for over 30 years. In 2020, he joined the Board of Directors of the California State Poetry Society, as one of the Editors of the California Quarterly. He is also an active member of Helena Modjeska Art & Culture Club and was a member of Krak Poetry Group in Los Angeles while it was still active.
Additionally, he is a founding member of the Pecan Pie Organization, dedicated to artistic promotion and stage performances. Mr. Wilk recently served as the artistic director for Warsaw 80/75 performance of poetry, dance and music, celebrating the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of WWII (German attack on Poland), and the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. The event was held at the Santa Monica Playhouse in September 2019.
Personal web site: tademar.com.
Chapbooks: Agrest – and other poems (23 poems , 2001); November Sonnets (22 sonnets, 2002); Mnemonic Sonnets (1997); Belgian Waffles (2001); The Rose Petal (14 sonnets, 1997); Samizdat z Los Angeles (21 sonnets, 2024); Troika (27 poems, 2024).
Books in preparation: Prometheus (a 500-page novel); three collections of poems -Harlequinade, Order of Magnitude, and Anahit and Artemisia, and the second edition of November Sonnets, expanded to over 50 sonnets.
Poems in magazines: Three issues of the Citadel – 1992, 1998, 2006; about 60 poems and stories in Angie’s Diary, sonnets in Poetry Letter (featured poet in No. 1 of 2024), California Quarterly, vol. 49, no. 1, Spring 2023.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
MARCH
UUR I, “To quiet the soul enough…” — 3
UUR II, “Uncomfortable dimensions…” — 4
UUR III, “Unsettling dreams in spaces…” — 5
UUR IV, “’It’s a hobby,’ once again I heard…” — 6
UUR V, “Rivets and cold hard steel…” — 7
UUR VI, “Polish leftists embarrassed…” — 8
UUR VII, “Midnight has passed…” — 9
UUR VIII, “The night requires …” — 10
UUR IX, “For the rhythm of the sacred…” — 11
UUR X, “I see the vast emptiness…” — 12
UUR XI, “This then is the material…” — 13
UUR XII, “Turn the page and let…” — 14
UUR XIII, “Suspension of time within…” — 15
UUR XIV, “For they would dismiss…” — 16
UUR XV, “Cosmic fairytales and…” — 17
UUR XVI, “Arrow of Time outpaces …” — 18
UUR XVII, “Homeostasis in a stolen…” — 19
UUR XVIII, “For it is the Papacy…” — 20
UUR XIX, “Time is the sea the pilot sails…” — 21
UUR XX, “Solitude in a metal box…” — 22
UUR XXI, “Blessed be Einstein in his…” — 23
UUR XXII, “Howl at the full moon…” — 24
UUR XXIII, “You’ll know yourself only…” — 25
UUR XXIV, “An intramolecular…” — 26
APRIL
UUR XXV, “Canto incompleto, ravens gather…” — 27
UUR XXVI, “Twenty one thirty seven…” — 28
UUR XXVII, “Gravitas in the murky stream…” — 29
UUR XXVIII, “Fever and mist before my eyes…” — 30
UUR XXIX, “And now it begins that secrets…” — 31
UUR XXX, “Swiftly now, time is a wave…” — 32
UUR XXXI, “Hastily sketched notes…” — 33
UUR XXXII, “Asynchronous axiomatic…” — 34
UUR XXXIII, “I step through the…” — 35
UUR XXXIV, “In the absence of absolute…” — 36
UUR XXXV, “You waited too long…” — 37
UUR XXXVI, “At the end of the tunnel…” — 38
UUR XXXVII, “Here I lower my knee…” — 39
UUR XXXVIII, “Manifested inflorescence…” — 40
UUR XXXIX, “April is a difficult month…” — 41
UUR XL, “Stepping at an agile clip…” — 42
MAY
UUR XLI, “Deep within the clenched jaw…” — 43
UUR XLII, “Fortuitous shadows cast…” — 44
UUR XLIII, “The truth remains…” — 45
UUR XLIV, “Abstraction interferes…” — 46
UUR XLV, “Allochthonous configurations…” — 47
UUR XLVI, “Passing through, Roman knight …” — 48
UUR XLVII, “Damaged. A crystal vase…” — 49
UUR XLVIII, “Neptune kisses my son’s feet …” — 50
UUR IL, “Each of us is a geometry…” — 51
UUR L, “Betwixt the agony and…” — 52
UUR LI, “Golden head of sleepy hair…” — 53
UUR LII, “Particles of salt unevenly spilled…” — 54
UUR LIII, “It is midnight and the Sheriffs…” — 55
UUR LIV, “There is a hidden cause within…” —56
UUR LVI, “I found a pair of tiny socks…” — 57
UUR LVI, “And then the darkness…” — 58
UUR LVII, “Divinity is contained in…” —59
UUR LVIII, “Happiness is a woman drunk…” — 60
JUNE
UUR LIX, “Who is Adam Mickiewicz…” — 61
UUR LX, “Errors are pathways to…” —63
UUR LXI, “For the hour is late and…” — 64
UUR LXII, “Homo homini lupus est…” — 65
UUR LXIII, “Now I close the doors of…” — 66
UUR LXIV, “For they shall come into…” — 67
UUR LXV, “Faded it has: the memory…” — 68
UUR LXVI, “But earlier the depth was…” — 69
UUR LXVII, “Never is a harsh word…” — 70
UUR LXVIII, “I have now run out of blank…” — 71
UUR LXIX, “We spoke of other things too…” — 72
UUR LXX, “Don’t speak to me of Plumber …” — 73
UUR LXXI, “A white feather floating…” — 74
UUR LXXII, “Cool breeze within the taste…” — 75
UUR LXXIII, “Concurrent motion across…” — 76
UUR LXXIV, “The wind is turning my…” — 77
UUR LXXV, “An empty road ivory lit …” — 78
UUR LXXVI, “I invoke what I see…” — 79
UUR LXXVII, “And then there was one…” — 80
UUR LXXVIII, “Old runic spells, blood…” — 81
UUR LXXIX, “Data juxtaposition acquired…” — 82
UUR LXXX, “Cool to the touch, a hard…” — 83
UUR LXXXI, “Sabines are spoils of war…” — 84
UUR LXXXII, “It capitulates in nocturnal…” — 85
UUR LXXXIII, “I am of two minds, split…” — 86
UUR LXXXIV, “Midsummer blossoms…” — 87
UUR LXXXV, “Between the woods and…” — 88
UUR LXXXVI, “Youth’s a currency with…” — 89
UUR LXXXVII, “Some runes can be written…” — 90
UUR LXXXVIII, “For it is fortune that lights…” — 91
UUR LXXXIX, “Notice the tone, see how it…” — 92
UUR XC, “I dreamed the path up to find…” — 93
UUR XCI, “I demanded something…” — 94
UUR XCII, “Day’s ended on lavender…” — 95
UUR XCIII, “Leave no message unanswered…” — 96
UUR XCIV, “Poseidon doses in the late …” — 97
UUR XCV, “Fog has come to the shores of…” — 98
UUR XCVI, “Capturing topography of the…” — 99
UUR XCVII, “White stones in a semi-circle…” — 100
JULY
UUR XCVIII, “You don’t believe me, you…” — 101
UUR IC, “We are carriers of a viral truth…” — 102
UUR C, “A tropical garden pickled…” — 103
UUR CI, “We don't understand each other …” — 104
UUR CII, “There is no time without matter…” — 105
UUR CIII, “Is God then a problem in…” — 106
UUR CIV, “An embryonic conception…” — 107
UUR CV, “The topography of ideas has to…” — 108
UUR CVI, “Coffee is no substitute for…” — 109
UUR CVII “The dreamer of moonlit…” — 110
UUR CVIII, “’You don’t know Russians…” — 111
UUR CIX, “For one more minute it’s my…” — 112
UUR CX, “It was the day after we heard it…” — 113
UUR CXI, “Disengagement — a recall notice…” — 114
UUR CXII, “For each tree is a reflection of…” — 115
UUR CXIII, “Bitter taste of coffee near…” — 116
UUR CXIV, “Deconstructed motion in…” — 117
UUR CXV, “The soul’s not an…” — 118
UUR CXVI, “The fantasy of erotic…” — 119
UUR CXVII, “Razor blade applied to the…” — 120
UUR CXVIII, “‘Tis Tyr’s Dag and the Fenris …” — 121
UUR CXIX, “So if only we had left our…” — 122
UUR CXX, “I invoke Reineildis and Helier…” — 123
UUR CXXI, “A two-sided coin is then all …” — 124
UUR CXXII, “In between the cycles of…” — 125
UUR CXXIII, “Alternate laws in hidden…” — 126
AUGUST
UUR CXXIV, “There is really no place to…” — 127
UUR CXXV, “Silence is a purification…” — 128
UUR CXXVI, “The Grove of the Cave…” — 129
UUR CXXVII, “Never mind the seduction…” — 130
UUR CXXVIII, “ Merciless time troubles…” — 131
UUR CXXIX, “And now other thoughts all …” — 132
UUR CXXX, “Aggression inside of the…” — 133
UUR CXXXI, “Sultry Salacia spreads her…” — 134
UUR CXXXII, “Behold the child in trusting…” — 135
UUR CXXXIII, “Art is a biological process…” — 136
UUR CXXXIV, “Death is not an argument…” — 137
UUR CXXXV, “Invoked, and he will come…” — 139
UUR CXXXVI, “Uranus and Pluto I sing…” — 140
UUR CXXXVII, “Then I dream of a slippery…” — 141
UUR CXXXVIII, “Her golden hair like…” — 142
UUR CXXXIX, “Motion in stillness bisecting…” — 143
UUR CXL, “Kukulkan circles above me…” — 144
UUR CXLI, “This then is the enemy’s plan…” — 145
UUR CXLII, “Take note of the Múbid…” — 146
SEPTEMBER
UUR CXLIII, “Ruthenian lass, what…” — 147
UUR CXLIV, “So, let me take you to wide…” — 148
UUR CXLV, “Death is the edge of a…” — 149
UUR CXLVI, “What can we do against the…” — 150
UUR CXLVII, “The pig-man commeth…” — 151
UUR CXLVIII, “And so the feet can be…” — 152
UUR CIL, “Ev’n at this late hour the…” — 153
UUR CL, “Young nymphet, cowboy boots…” — 154
UUR CLI, “I’ve taken notes, cast runes…” — 155
UUR CLII, “A cool glass of water is…” — 156
UUR CLIII, “The portcullis are rusty…” — 157
UUR CLIV, “Sathish. A common enough…” — 158
UUR CLV, “Since I have hidden myself…” — 159
UUR CLVI, “For I hear the voice command…” — 160
UUR CLVII, “Given enough time, the worst…” — 161
UUR CLVIII, “Parallel lines intersecting…” — 162
UUR CLIX, “What thoughts crystallized in…” — 163
UUR CLX, “Hear me Euterpe, is the moon…” — 164
UUR CLXI, “The occupation excavates…” — 165
UUR CLXII, “The geometry of the glass…” — 166
UUR CLXIII, “Why do I feel death so near…” — 167
UUR CLXIV, “I’ve slept again in the…” — 168
UUR CLXV, “I’ve sinned again, engaged…” — 169
UUR CLXVI, “I must take you into…” — 170
UUR CLXVII, “Know that the eye sees only…” — 171
UUR CLXVIII, “Light a torch for the dead…” — 172
COMMENTARY — 175
KONRAD TADEMAR WILK —205
SONNETS NOMINATED FOR PUSHCART PRIZE 2025
UUR II
Uncomfortable dimensions* interlaced with mood
Melancholy dangling on a subtle shoestring
Lines of grain filed down flat to five minutes, crude—
— words put to simple catchy music, that idiots sing
With bitter taste of coffee filled with cyanide**
A world-wide war within a beer bottle bravely drunk
Where is the modern poet to go to hide?
Smell of Los Angeles a few whiffs from a skunk
Traffic in Time, capturing dreams, caution: wet floor
No more space left for flowers and trees, but who cares
All you’ve to do is snap your fingers for a whore
And a Country Western song to hop, skip in pairs
My cell phone battery is dead, thanks’ be to see
Blesséd silence of urban decaying debris.
March 6, 2013
NOTES:
* In supersymmetry (a theoretical framework of physics) eleven-dimensional gravity allows for the highest number of dimensions to explain reality.
** A poetic concatenation of two Agatha Christie (1890-1976) plot points from her spy-thriller play Black Coffee (1930) & her detective novel Sparkling Cyanide (1945).
UUR XXXV
You waited too long, startled… the quiet has fled
Hidden now in some nook sculpted out of dark tear
It will weep softly there, weave out of a white thread—
—a shawl of repression with which to wrap peace with care
Weave across the tear, a dark dreaming drudgery
Into which it can pour its softness and despair
Its heavy head and trembling heart, there to hide, flee
Careful now, the quiet is a dark sea, Kraken’s lair*
Within which swim all manner of myth and legend
And maidens swooning in a knight’s arms, and loss, love
And here the quiet has woven its nest, to defend—
—against the bright spacetime fabric’s awful above
A rip in the tapestry, a leak of silence
The quiet makes its stand here, with calm brutal violence.
April 18, 2013
NOTE:
* Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), “The Kraken” (1830).
UUR LV
I found a pair of tiny socks near my pillow
And for a moment, late at night, I could not grasp—
—the meaning of them, till I felt that strange billow—
—rising inside — force with which my heart to clasp
I have a child, a tiny little boy, small two feet
A son who wears those silly-small socks when he walks
In a tiny pair of blue shoes, ready the world to meet
Exploring — even though he babbles when he talks
And so I held the little socks, looked into the crib
There he was — trusting me to keep him safe —asleep
A tiny man, two feet, arms, sharp eyes, milk stained bib
And the love within me swelled to an ocean deep
Then I kissed his small feet, with one kiss per small heel
And myself went to sleep, perplexed with what I feel.
May 29, 2013, – for Artur
UUR XC
I dreamed the path up to find the way home again
The candle flickers, its flame alive, yearning to set fire—
—to a world not ready for its light, the insane—
—preach reason to the forgiving saints un-tired
Silver and gold in a booming old town, bearded—
—young men spitting tobacco while the beer flows free…
So what would you have me do when I will not plead—
—for mercy from fate, string up that noose on the tree—
—and let me dangle from it if that is what you will
They set the house ablaze, and shot the horses dead
My girl ran off with the priest, and my heart was still
When the good and friendly angel and I finally wed
I know nothing except the taste of bitten lips
My drink has spilled, the mask I wear quietly slips.
June 27, 2013UUR CLI
I’ve taken notes, cast runes against the wind, let fast—
—spells to the tracks of time’s passage to say, to pray
To render my thoughts into ink-scribed stains that last
But the Logos speaks in its own voice, just to say
Golden hour, late summer day with half naked girls
All the cars on the street are silver, grey or black
We’ve created a beige world, scattered all the pearls
All that’s left is Thor’s Mjolnir with wind at the back
Air is still, suspended sequence, events on hold
The cycle of thoughts spins to a stop, slowly spent
For each sigil spills from the quill in contrast bold
Strung together molds reality to what is meant
Count each obstacle and delay as a blessing
What is, must so be — all what if’s are pure guessing.
August 29, 2013, Feast day of Santa Sabina and
the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist
UUR CLXVI
I must take you into the bosom of my wordsFor such is the decree of the Tree Gods who mourn For if we do not cry, then termites will be lordsAnd all that will remain is a page of verse, tornFor it is a sin to cut down a tree, grave, vile
It offers us unconditional love, trust, shadeThe best bark is the one that has weathered awhileI should sing you in a style that meets in a trade…But alas I met your chant at the autumnal——equinox of your death… a war kill for the darkBad omen to be sure for poets eternalAnd so I mourn you Kofi Awoonor, embark……on your final journey, to childhood’s sweet abodeMawu and Lisa open their arms down the road!
September 21, 2013, the Autumnal Equinox
on the death of Kofi Awoonor, poet
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