Abstract
This article examines the poetry of Andrei Ciurunga (1920-2002), the pseudonym ofRobert Esenbraun, born in a family of German settlers in southern Bessarabia. Under thecommunist regime he was sentenced on two occasions (the first time to four years, 1950-1954, the second time to 18 years to prison – from 1958), he was detained for a little morethan ten years, undergoing amnesty in 1964. Memorable is the poem published after the fallof communism. It is a poem „coming from the heart”. The author has identified his destinywith the poetry of detention in all prisons and jails of Romania (Gherla, Salcia, Jilava,Văcărești, Peninsula, Poarta Albă, Danube - Black Sea canal). The lyrics "From the Canal"are distinguished by the invention of a new fixed form of poetry, the decastih. They werementally composed and circulated widely among the detainees. It reveals, retroactively,another world, a world from the carceral inferno.