Ksenia Burzhskaya opens the “gateways” of feelings and themes: Love, loneliness, freedom and not freedom, fear of the future, uncertainty in the past. And on top of all this is the enormous power of the human personality, which grows and changes with every new word, with every sound. “Floodgates” is more than poetry. This is a book of states and premonitions. “Before us is the first book of poems by a writer whose prose is already known to the reader and loved by him. Usually the poems come first. Here they were written for almost twenty years, before prose and in parallel with it, but only now are they being published in a separate edition. And, reading them, you think about what “niche” of modern poetry to place them in, but you can’t find it. Are these confessional poems, poems about human feelings, for example, about love? Yes and no. Because Burzskaya knows how to talk about these feelings soberly and directly, without the decorations and conventional devices characteristic of this kind of poetry, and, as a rule, without general prosodic moves that are always ready. But she knows how to talk not only about the particular, tremulous, elusive, but also about the general, big and terrible (but experienced differently by each consciousness). This skill is especially important now.” – Valery Shubinsky, poet, literary critic, literary historian “Ksenia Burzhskaya is an interesting author of our modern times. Completely liberated. With its own vocabulary, music and history. Feeling and reasonable. And yet doubting. What is especially dear to me." – Veronica Dolina, poetess, singer “If you look at a poet for many years (or read this book), you will see how one person grows, loves, matures, gives birth to a daughter, emigrates, makes a career, loses his father, returns and stays for now (and here , and myself), and writes about it. All this will pass (and we will too), but these poems will remain.” – Radmila Khakova, writer, journalist