AUTHOR'S NOTE:

For clarification, "The Hangman" was a popular nickname for Stalin during the 1930s.

I love the repetition of "go ... my friend." I loved the pictures that were summoned in my mind while I read this. I really liked the flow, too; you can tell how this poem was meant to be read, and I liked that a lot. I particualarly loved the line, "there will be ice," because it conjures the memory of walking outside and knowing that tomorrow you'll have to be careful because everything will be ice.

Your talent is amazing. It's not easy to write such sparse lines and still have them carry meaning. I like that you don't break up the stanzas with punctuation and leave the ends open. This is such a beautiful subject and position to write from, something warm in the midst of everything cold and dark. I love it.

The beautiful rhythm and repetition of "go ... my friend" in each stanza gives the poem the flow and feel of a song.

I love the old-style feel of this poem; it is simple, but the language and imagery come through nicely. My only problem was the use of the word "cold" twice -- if you had repeated another word in the same way, it would've been better, I think, or if you had replaced one of the repeats.  I liked this and your other pieces very much (the Russian titles add something unique), but what does "tcshatelna" mean? It didn't translate when I looked it up.