From the beginning Kovalčík presented himself as a meditative poet with existentialist orientation constantly asking questions about essential problems of being. The need to ask questions, the Socratic exploration of his soul, the everlasting amazement at being, all this is present in Kovalčík's poetry which formally resembles philosophising essays. In spite of critics who often minimised poetry by calling it "servant of the present" and received Kovalčík's lyric with ideational or ideological reservations, the poet remained faithful to the explorative and reflective line of creation. He protested and covertly questioned one-sidedness in semantically shallow poems, the "shallowing mirror" of Slovak poetry during the seventies. His collection of poems published in the late 1980's
Endurance for Questions once again tackles problems of man and the world.
For Kovalčík each poem is a meaningful journey showing the right direction to those who are willing to make it. The truth of poetry opens up in the form of a question. His ability to ask questions, his "endurance for questions" connects closely with the ability to uncover essential problems of human existence. In his latest book
Reflection of Fire Kovalčík presents meditative lyrical poems of poetical maturity. There aren't many poets like him in the Slovak context so deeply submerged in philosophy, especially ontology. The mystery of being is present in all of his poems, he is not concerned only for his personal being or his family's but also for his people in Zamagurie, namely the Carthusians and Kamalduls who lived at Červený Kláštor for centuries. The poet feels their everlasting presence as a spiritual heritage, which became the source of his poetic and philosophical inspiration - this is obvious from Kovalčík's two books of essays:
On the Northern Threshold and Under the Northern Coat-of-Arms.
Anton Baláž
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