Ukraine. Collective Portrait is a powerful poetic document from the heart of war — an intimate, moving account of everyday life in Ukraine after February 24, 2022. This collection of 39 short poems forms a mosaic of voices — women, children, soldiers, the elderly, volunteers, even animals — capturing the tragedy, resilience, and hope of people thrown into the chaos of Russian aggression.
With exceptional sensitivity and strength, Barbara Natalli portrays scenes from Mariupol, Irpin, Kharkiv, and Bakhmut. Through the brevity of form and vivid imagery, the reader becomes a witness: to the bombing of a hospital, the desperate evacuation of children, the silence of metro shelters, or an old woman planting tulip bulbs among ruins.
This is poetry of testimony and resistance, a reminder that behind every statistic lies a face, a name, a story.
Published in Warsaw in 2025, the book was translated into English by Maciej Krysmann
