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a poet, psychologist, Sanskrit expert, and a man whom I owe a lot to. He suggested that I send my first poems to Leszin. I did so, and in 1981, Jurek published two of my works in the literary section of Nowy Medyk, a magazine for medi- cal students. Four years later, he published my note, photo, and I think eight poems in the po- etry column of this biweekly magazine. I nev- er studied medicine, but the field happened to become very close to my heart, because from 1998 to 2020, I managed a library branch at the hospital in Sieradz.
Returning to Jurek Leszin... A very direct and sociable personality, quickly bridging the gap. He liked me and we corresponded quite fre- quently. At the time, I mothered my children in Małyń while waiting for a cooperative apart- ment in Sieradz. Jurek urged me to swap the apartment for one in Warsaw right away. He al- so offered me a job at the Młodzieżowa Agenc- ja Wydawnicza (Youth Publishing Agency). But I had spent three years in Wrocław before and already knew I wasn’t capable of living in a big city. That’s why I settled in Sieradz.
Jurek also sent me stacks of books his daugh- ter had “outgrown”. My children, in preschool years at the time, enjoyed listening to me read to them. However, one day my four-year-old daughter said: “We don’t like these books. We’re going to tear them up”. I didn’t take the threat seriously, but when I entered their room some time later, it turned out they weren’t joking – the entire space flooded with book shreds. When children slightly grew up, I reminded them of this story. They couldn’t recall exactly what they didn’t like about those books and deeply regret- ted their act of destruction.
Poezja przypadków (Sieradz, 1990) is your debut collection. How do you retrospectively
find it? How different are your current poems from those first pieces?
Oh, they significantly differ. Poezja przypadków was a small collection published in 100 copies by the Wojewódzki Dom Kultury in Sieradz. The collection certainly included poems full of emotions. I haven’t looked at it in a long time. I remember its promotion dated March 9 and there was a snowstorm with thunder at the time.
You know, you outgrow your poems. But you have to publish more volumes in order to learn from yourself, to develop and overcome these next steps.
Then came the following volumes: Zupełnie szczęśliwa marionetka (A Quite Happy Pup- pet, Sieradz 1994), Może się przyśnisz (Maybe You’ll be Dreamed About, Kraków 1999), and finally Nieopisanie (Undescription, Łódź 2001). Arkadiusz Frania, a poet and literary critic from Częstochowa, wrote about the latter volume: “The conciseness and asceticism of the poems in question, often taking the form of minia- tures or haiku full of poetic charm, are worth emphasising. The poetry of the Sieradz-based author – which is highly commendable when it comes to the theme of love – sounds original. The Nieopisanie volume is therefore charac- terised by an easily recognisable, original style of mature female writing.”. I was particularly intrigued by the theme of maturity in writing. Do you also feel that this is a breakthrough collection, in which you’ve touched yourself and your surroundings in a mature way, with a well-developed poetics? Is it true?
Arek Frania is a great poet and a very in- sightful critic. If he wrote that, then appar- ently that’s how it was. He likes my poems and reviews them very positively. He once
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fot. Monika Włazło