Showing posts with label Anna Kamienska. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anna Kamienska. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

through the body

 

 


 

Our weaknesses are the way to God
 
Tell me why it is through the body
 
through torment of the body you speak to the spirit
 
why through leprosy fever deafness
 
You are a healer and not a priest
 
you take in your hands the head of the dying
 
from one lump you bring forth new life 
 
like bread you multiply the body
 
You come through bodies not through sunsets
 
and the hard strong hand of blood and flesh
 
holds in the palm like a sparrow
 
the muscle of the human heart
 
 
 
 
~ Anna Kamienska
from Astonishments
 
 
 
 

lack of faith

 
 
 

 
 
Yes
 
even when I don't believe
 
there is a place in me
 
inaccessible to unbelief
 
a patch of wild grace
 
a stubborn preserve
 
impenetrable
 
pain untouched sleeping in the body
 
music that builds its nest in silence
 
 
 
 
 
~ Anna Kamienska
from Astonishments
 art Detail from Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein
 

Saturday, September 12, 2020

funny









What’s it like to be a human
the bird asked


I myself don’t know
it’s being held prisoner by your skin
while reaching infinity

being a captive of your scrap of time
while touching eternity

being hopelessly uncertain
and helplessly hopeful

being a needle of frost
and a handful of heat

breathing in the air
and choking wordlessly

it’s being on fire
with a nest made of ashes

eating bread
while filling up on hunger

it’s dying without love
it’s loving through death


That’s funny said the bird
and flew effortlessly up into the air




—Anna Kamienska 
from Astonishments 
translated by Grazyna Drabik and David Curzon
with thanks to love is a place