Kato Javakhishvili’s poems are notable for their original, unique energy and an enthralling poetic form. Many reviews and notices have been written about her work. Particularly interesting is her last book A Lullaby for Men. It has to be pointed out that her texts have a peculiar expressiveness which make them quite complicated and different. It is no exaggeration to say similarly woven literary tissues are rare. The book has many social themes, where the author directly points out to the reader the problems which affect today’s society. A Lullaby for Men consists of several parts. One chapter of the book is devoted to women’s problems: violence against women, women’s search for men’s capabilities in the modern world, the recent increase of cases of girls committing suicide, old age and many other questions. The book has a cycle called Percentages, which consists of minimalist poems. In actual fact, these are fragmentary thoughts, dismembered parts of a whole. Kato Javakhishvili often uses interludes which change the poem’s rhythm and intonation. These free-verse interludes often contain rhymed lines, which creates variations and provides refrains to the poems. Some conventional poems can be found in the book: here the author also inserts interludes, but in this case they are free verse. Or she does the reverse. Thus this collection A Lullaby for Men is very experimental, an attempt to change forms, which enhances what she has to say.

‘Kato Javakhishvili’s poetic formis verslibres alternating with conventional stanzas. Her conventional poems are idiosyncratic and like nobody else’s. They have frequent full stops in the lines, where another poet might put the stress. This gives the poem’s music a staccato quality, and her rhymes are also fresh, resonant and distanced from one another in an unusual way.’   

Lia Sturua, poet

‘The lullaby was devised so as to induce sleep in a person, even a man: Kato’s Lullaby, however, wakes you up, alerts the reader, above all any man, above all a self-satisfied one, and more than anyone else, a poet. As an editor (just one) chosen for this book and its first reader, I can say quite seriously that this book should be read by the most self-satisfied male poet. And if he isn’t self-satisfied and isn’t a poet, all the more so.’   

Paata Natsvlishvili, poet

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