streams of dust behind the town. dust
and cornfields as if it were the crash site
of a space probe which had disgorged violet
figures, shields, old car seats lying in the grass.
it was here I understood what provinces are
this indifferent spasm with regards to infinity,
wind - the shadow of a man leaning down alone
over a magnetic chessboard. there are no more
days when we would run to the cemetery
to feed the bees (we thought
they feasted on clapping and song – food
the dead didn't have time to pack). or maybe it was
not like that, all that. perhaps I invented the names
and dates, opened a dream which was not mine,
for nought. maybe bees are an airborne disease,
the dead - children who feed on songs
Roman Honet (b. 1974) has published nine volumes of poetry, most recently: pamięć niczyja, ciało moje [nobody’s memory, my body] (2024), as well as two selected editions: moja [mine] (2008) and rozmowa trwa dalej [the conversation continues] (2016). Editor of the anthology Poeci na nowy wiek [Poets for a New Century] (2010), co-editor of Antologia nowej poezji polskiej 1990-2000 [Anthology of New Polish Poetry 1990–2000] (2004). Winner of the Wisława Szymborska Award in 2015 for the volume świat był mój [the world was mine]. His poetry was translated into Czech, Spanish, Lithuanian, Latvian, German, Norwegian, Slovenian, and English. In recent years a selection of his poetry has appeared in Russian as Месса Лядзинского [The Mass of Ladziński] (trans. Sergei Moreino, Moscow, 2017), a volume in Ukrainian as Світ належав мені (trans. Yurii Zavadskyi, Ternopil, 2019), a Serbian edition as Svet je bio mój (trans. Biserka Rajčić, Belgrade, 2021), and a selection of poems in Latvian, Kauns un ķirši [shame and cherries] (trans. Sergei Moreino, Riga: Literatūras Kombains, 2026).
MJ Kazmierski, born in Warsaw, Poland and raised in London, England has been working as an actor, author, visual artist, filmmaker, educator, and translator with disadvantaged groups in Europe and America since 1999. He has translated books by Jakub Żulczyk, Adam Mickiewicz, Aleksander Fredro, Dorota Masłowska, Julian Tuwim, Jan Brzechwa, Grzegorz Kasdepke, Zuzanna Ginczanka, Jan Himilsbach, and several other Polish authors into English. He has been a trustee of English PEN in the UK and the Griffin Poetry Prize in Canada. In 2020, he created Our Great Book of Poland, the largest poetry anthology in the world, and is currently working on a trilogy of musical projects based on the songs of Fryderyk Chopin, Elvis Presley, and many other artists of Polish descent.
