It makes sense to publish either only the best poems, or all of them. When a poet has about seven hundred of them on his account, it is difficult to hope that all of them are the best. But, collected together and arranged in chronological order, these poems acquire a much broader meaning than a purely poetic one.

As a poet, Serhiy Zhadan is more or less the same age as Ukrainian Independence. Since the very beginning of the newest Ukraine, he has been writing poems, without long vacations and pronounced crises, on average two per month. Therefore, “All Poems” is one of the most thorough histories of Ukraine over the past thirty years: with all our unexpected ups and downs, swings between left and right extremes, the murder of the syllabic-tonic and its resurrection, the repetition of what has been done and the search for new paths. As expected, in the beginning there was youthful rebellion. As expected, today there is mature responsibility. In short, Ukraine is maturing – and Zhadan is maturing. Or vice versa. In any case, the process is ongoing, so there is hope that in some time “All Poems” will turn out to be far from all.