Anna Swirszczynska

Anna Swirszczynska Poems

A night of love
exquisite as a
concert from old Venice
played on exquisite instruments.
...

The old man
leaves his house, carries books.
A German soldier snatches his books
flings them in the mud.
...

Walking to your place for a love fest
I saw at a street corner
an old beggar women.
I took her hand,
...

Cuddling in the arms her half-asphyxiated baby, howling,
she ran up the staircase of the apartment building that was set ablaze.
From the first floor to the second.
From the second to the third.
...

You will not tame this sea
either by humility or rapture.
But you can laugh
in its face.
...

She is sixty. She lives
the greatest love of her life.

She walks arm-in-arm with her dear one,
...

She was an evil stepmother.
In her old age she is slowly dying
in an empty hovel.
...

Our embrace lasted too long.
We loved right down to the bone.
I hear the bones grind, I see
our two skeletons.
...

There are moments
when I feel more clearly than ever
that I am in the company
of my own person.
...

Happy as something unimportant
and free as a thing unimportant.
As something no one prizes
and which does not prize itself.
...

As a child
I put my finger in the fire
to become
a saint.
...

Look in the mirror. Let us both look.
Here is my naked body.
Apparently you like it,
I have no reason to.
...

Anna Swirszczynska Biography

Anna Swirszczynska (also known as Anna Swir) was a Polish poet whose works deal with themes, including her experiences during World War II, motherhood, the female body, and sensuality. Swirszczynska was born in Warsaw and grew up in poverty as the daughter of an artist. She began publishing her poems in the 1930s. During the Nazi occupation of Poland she joined the Polish resistance movement in World War II and was a military nurse during the Warsaw Uprising. She wrote for underground publications and once waited 60 minutes to be executed. Czeslaw Milosz writes of knowing her during this time and has translated a volume of her work. Her experiences during the war strongly influenced her poetry. In 1974 she published "Building the Barricade", a volume which describes the suffering she witnessed and experienced during that time. She also writes frankly about the female body in various stages of life.)

The Best Poem Of Anna Swirszczynska

The Second Madrigal

A night of love
exquisite as a
concert from old Venice
played on exquisite instruments.
Healthy as a
buttock of a little angel.
Wise as an
anthill.
Garish as air
blown into a trumpet.
Abundant as the reign
of a royal Negro couple
seated on two thrones
cast in gold.

A night of love with you,
a big baroque battle
and two victories.

Anna Swirszczynska Comments

Susan Betts 27 January 2012

More poems by this author please.

4 2 Reply
Susan Betts 27 January 2012

I love all the 7 poems of Anna Swirszcynska on this website. I would really like to be able to find some more.

4 2 Reply

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