To produce a poem

by Halina Poswiatowska

Halina Poswiatowska

To produce a poem - once a vibrating pain in the tissues was enough and a stock of words no greater than an animal's scream. Nowadays, one needs an outline and an argument, and comparative explorations into the depth of dictionaries. There are surgical interventions around words, there are word-hybrids, half-words, quarter-words, and there is an ambiguity of letters swollen with wisdom. And my thirst - a fledgling nightingale is silenced by all these scores and instruments. And when you ask me for meaning, I feel how the branch that supports the frail nest snaps under the crushing load of a grand piano.





Last updated January 14, 2019