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We read
ourselves
Jadwiga Mizińska
A poet friend of mine is a fan of short forms. She once told me: “Having read two long poems, a man is done for”.
I’d like to begin my reading of Maria Dusz- ka’s collection with this sigh, as a sign of the times. Times of haste, impatience, shortness
of breath, rushing. What are we chasing after? An old anecdote tells of a worker who wanted to unload a wheelbarrow full of sand so quickly that he didn’t have time to empty it, and then continued to wheel it back and forth.
Saving time, chasing time... What’s it all for? What does it mean that if we don’t hurry, we’ll be “done for”? Easy come, easy go, as the elderly used to say. Hidden in this saying is fear of squandering time and effort. At the same time, instead of celebrating Sunday – the Seventh Day – contemporary people wait for the weekend from Tuesday onwards. For those two days “off”. Thus, they fall into the slavery of idle time. Exempt from thinking or creating.
The short forms of poetry referred to in the above quote only make sense in cases of substance over form. Julian Tuwim, the author of Kwiaty polskie, was reproached of being unable to write long poems. Ac- cording to traditional standards, a great
poet, especially a bard, should write thick volumes, such as Pan Tadeusz, vast pano- ramas of national history. Preferably epics modelled on Homer.
Proust’s “lost time” should be “regained”. Read- ers of poems want everything “clear as day”. Without any ambiguity.
The current trend toward haste and brevity won’t tolerate verbosity, swallowing ready- made pills. Ancient pharmacists, like herb- alists, used to work at a completely different pace. In tune with nature, waiting for the right moment to harvest and dry herbs. At full moon, before the dew dries. Whispering spells under their breath.
Maria Duszka’s work, especially her latest col- lection, gives us reason to reflect on “hasting time”.
The words of a known poet read: Politicians talk to us, and talk, and talk—as if they had something important to say. But as a matter of fact, if anyone has something to say to the world, it is us, the poets.
“To say” doesn’t mean “to know”. Talking isn’t synonymous with generation and sharing of knowledge. It often means dull speech—emp- ty words.
This is how the meanings of the terms “pol- itician” and “poet” have diverged. Aristotle
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