Tag: poetry

Love Poem
Art + Stories
Experiences

Love Poem

Jacek Szafranowicz
he handed me a revised version
of my love poem
asking with surprise
what the word katyush was doing
in a love poem

I responded with surprise
that I didn’t understand
the question
he asked with a smile
what I meant to imply
by the word
katyush

I responded with a smile
that it’s like
a drop of fire
derived from the melting
of plastic

Could it be—he asked with a smile—
that a typo slipped in
since for instance
katyusha
is a Soviet rocket launcher
also known as
the Organs of Stalin

I answered with a smile—
no way

what a strange situation, I thought

how in a poem
of love
between the description of you
and my declaration
the word katyush appeared

did that love
have anything in common
with war or collapse
or devastation

walking back
I thought quite long about the word
but I couldn’t find any
other
to replace it

I walked a long while

I remembered the way

but everything in that poem
made sense after all



Author’s commentary:
Gdańsk, back in 2006. It was winter and cold as hell. From the shitty neighborhood Dolny Wrzeszcz, I arrived in the Old Town and pretty soon I was walking down the steps to one of the underground restaurants they have over there.

I felt awkward. I wasn’t a peasant, but I had never met anyone in a restaurant to talk about poetry either. However, a well-known poet—Antoni Pawlak—had invited me for drinks. That didn’t feel normal, either. I mean, once before he’d invited me to his house to talk over a bottle of whisky. That sounded nice, and I accepted. At the end of that meeting, he decided that my poetry should be seen. And so, I published my first group of poems in Migotania, Przejasnienia (Flickering, brightening).

Back to the restaurant. It was still that wonderful period when you were able to smoke inside, so we greeted each other, sat down, and lit up. Antoni began to look through the poems I had sent him earlier by email. The waiter brought us whiskey and beer. I was feeling confident—a young punk like me, I had a publication to my credit!

Antoni looked through the new work and at one point he paused. “It’s a great piece about love but are you sure there isn’t a typo with that katyush?” he asked.

And I replied, “No.”
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Obligations
Art + Stories
Experiences

Obligations

Jacek Dehnel
On the far side of the lake, the shattered pane of an ice floe,
closer in waves like soft streaks, one by one
docking near the shore,
then setting out from shore.
Later I watched as a heron skimmed over that icy pane,
doubled, mirrored,
both real and reflected,
reflected and real:
that day I did nothing,
yet I did everything necessary.



Author’s commentary:
The poem is pretty self-evident. Let readers take it in and figure out what’s going on. But beneath what’s universal in it, there’s something more prosaic and individual. When, for a long period, I was unable to finish a book of poems, another poet encouraged me—since I had a fellowship to Berlin—to work on poetry there instead of prose. I had always believed that poems come when they want to, but this time it was a matter of attitude, of making a habit of observing reality. In a month’s time, I had more than a dozen poems, including this one, and that Berlin notebook filled out my collection Najdziwniejsze (The strangest).
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Brilliant Errors in the System
Art + Stories
Experiences

Brilliant Errors in the System

The Oulipians would be delighted if they knew how easily they could be mistaken for Olympians. Controlled mistakes were one of the many elements that allowed them to experience creative freedom. In literature, errors are usually associated with spelling mistakes or misprints. From my own experience as an editor, I will never forget a poem […]
Maria Karpińska
Stray Birds
Art + Stories
Opinions, Art

Stray Birds

A selection of illustrated short poems, written by the great modernizer of Bengali art and culture.
Rabindranath Tagore
Gilgamesh
Art + Stories
Art

Gilgamesh

Grzegorz Uzdański
I must not fall asleep. I must not fall asleep.
Ut-napishtim, the immortal, says that if I do not fall asleep,
I will live forever, I will not die like Enkidu.
I sat by his body until a worm dropped out the nose.
It was repulsive, I leaped up screaming,
the face I was kissing became a nest of worms.
I fled, and I’m fleeing till now. I am really tired,
But I must not fall asleep. I asked them all on the way:
should I also die? Renounce the sun? No, never.
It’s enough that I don’t fall asleep.

I know no nicer feeling, than when lying in bed
and I feel the weight on my eyes, the slight spinning in my head:
sleep is coming. I am very afraid. This weight and darkness, and spinning
are stronger than me, every evening. But not tonight.

There are ways, for example, putting my fingers in my eyes,
but I won’t sit for a week with my fingers in my eyes,
it’s unbearable, besides, I would look stupid,
after all, I am the ruler of Uruk. (Another week. Did I sleep,
sitting next to Enkidu’s body? At the time I was not yet
so terribly tired).

When I was taking the boat through the waters of death,
which must not be touched, an old game proved useful
from childhood, of the monster under the bed. Not even a toe
can poke out from the bed (as from the boat), for the monster will catch me
and drag me into the kingdom of death (super fun, right?).
I’d lie, under the covers, thinking: I’ll stick out my toe, for a moment,
I’ll check if it’s actually there. And if it catches me? Struggling
with my curiosity, I’d lie, until the weight on my eyes and the darkness
made the fear and curiosity lose their power, and when it was
all over, then (if I’d only been awake) I’d be able to say—I’m already asleep.
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*William Shakespeare
Humor + Variety
Variety

*William Shakespeare

A poem written in the style of the famous English playwright and poet William Shakespeare.
Grzegorz Uzdański
*Jorge Luis Borges
Humor + Variety
Variety

*Jorge Luis Borges

A poem written in the style of the famous Argentine writer (and poet) Jorge Luis Borges.
Grzegorz Uzdański
*Rainer Maria Rilke
Humor + Variety
Variety

*Rainer Maria Rilke

A poem written in the style of the famous Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke.
Grzegorz Uzdański
*Anna Akhmatova
Humor + Variety
Variety

*Anna Akhmatova

A poem written in the style of the famous Russian poet Anna Akhmatova.
Grzegorz Uzdański
Totentanz
Art + Stories
Art

Totentanz

A late poem from one of the greatest Polish poets of the last century.
Tadeusz Różewicz