Sunday, November 4, 2012

POEMS





WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA

(vee-SWAHV-ah shimm-BOR-skah)

1923-2/3/2012

Poetess, Poland, Age 88
Noble Prize in Literature


A toddler unfamiliar with the law of gravity
investigates "things that don't move by themselves"...

A Little Girl Tugs at the Tablecloth
They don't all want to go, e.g. the bookshelf,
the cupboard, the unyielding walls, the table.
But the table cloth on the stubborn table
--when well-seized by its hems--
manifests a willingness to travel.
And the glasses, plates,
creamer, spoons, bowl,
are fairly shaking with desire.


Death, from the point of view of a cat who has lost its master...


Cat in an Empty Apartment
Die--you can't do that to a cat.
Since what can a cat do
in an empty apartment?
Climb the walls?
Rub up against the furniture?
Nothing seems different here,
but nothing is the same.
Nothing has been moved,
but there's more space.
And at nighttime no lamps are lit.


She published a collection every six or seven years,
writing by hand in a modest apartment with a view of a parking lot.
She was composing poems until she died.

from "Poems New and Collected" (2000)
when it comes you'll be dreaming
that you don't need to breathe;
that breathless silence is
the music of the dark
and it's part of the rhythm
to vanish like a spark.

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