Growing into loneliness, even her bike
won’t help, her shiny mountain bike.
Growing into the emptiness behind the windowsill,
sudden precipice; growing into herself
and from herself, in-between she won’t find anything,
won’t find a willing one to search together –
she doesn’t know that yet, for now she walks
her bike and strokes it, she keeps her head high,
the glitter of the sun in her curls;
growing up to sky,
her shadow, her body remaining behind.
Karol Maliszewski was born in 1960 in Nowa Ruda, Poland where he lives today. He teaches in the Journalism and Social Media Department at the University of Wroclaw [Breslau] in Poland. He has eight book of poems in Polish and seven books of prose.
He also published five books of criticism in Polish. He is the co-author of a textbook: “How to become a writer.”
Ewa Chrusciel is a poet, translator, and educator. She has four books of poems in English with Omnidawn Press: Yours, Purple Gallinule (2022), Strata, Of Annunciations, Contraband of Hoopoe, as well as three books in Polish: Tobołek, Sopiłki, and Furkot. Her book Contraband of Hoopoe was translated into Italian by Anna Aresi and came out in Italy with Edizioni Ensemble in May 2019. Her poems have been included in curricula at institutions such as Harvard University, University of Wisconsin, Dartmouth College, Salem State University.
She also translated various authors into Polish, including books by Jack London, Joseph Conrad, and I.B. Singer, as well as book of selected poems by Jorie Graham (2013), and aforthcoming book of selected poems by Vievee Francis (2027), and selected poems of Kazim Ali, Lyn Hejinian, Cole Swensen, Mathew Olzmann and other American poets.
She is a Professor of Creative and Professional Writing and M. Roy London Endowed Chair at Colby-Sawyer College.
