Poetry and Essays by Ed Krizek

Since college, I have had a strong interest in writing, although I didn’t explore it much at that time. I visited my freshman English professor and expressed my desire to write down all the experiences I had accumulated up until that point in my life. He casually asked, “Have you ever seen a psychiatrist?” I was taken aback, as I had seen a therapist briefly but didn’t understand the connection to writing. Over the years, I came to believe that my professor thought working through problems in therapy might be more beneficial than writing them down. It seemed he preferred the idea of being happy over being a tortured writer. I never wrote much more than the required papers in college. Later in life, I saw a therapist who advised me to write, leading me to begin journaling in 1990. 

As time passed, I started drafting short stories just for fun. In the nineties, I joined a writing group and committed to writing one short story a week to keep pace with my weekly meetings. Those stories are now collected in my book, “Memories Lost.” Eventually, I shifted my focus to poetry. My first poem was published in 1999, and since then, I have concentrated on poetry, with over one hundred poems published. You can explore some of my work on my website, edkrizek.com. 

I chose to write poetry because of its conciseness; while a short story may require several pages and many words to convey an observation, poetry can capture it in a single line. I enjoy highlighting small, seemingly inconsequential details of the world and illustrating how they fit into the broader web of life. Additionally, connecting with readers on a personal level is important to me. I aim for everyone to relate to my work, whether it's through my poetry or short stories.