Gift Watch: The Collected Poems 1956-1998

This year, I’ll be posting a daily Gift Watch, featuring items that I think would make great gifts. Even the godless exchange gifts in December, and there’s no shortage of cool gadgets, books, records and art to shower on your friends and family this year. Enjoy.

The Collected Poems 1956-1998 by Zbigniew Herbert is an assortment of Herbert’s particularly soulful, stark and humorous works full of lyricism, fantastical otherworlds and commentary on the pain of the 20th century. Herbert’s primary focus (and what he is known for) is his dedicated leadership in the arts against the communist movement in Poland during World War II, and is known for having said “The word is a window onto reality.”