My choices are rejections, since there is no other way, but what I reject is more numerous, denser, more demanding than before. A little poem, a sigh, at the cost of indescribable losses.
Wislawa SzymborskaI am a tarsier and a tarsier's son, the grandson and great-grandson of tarsiers, a tiny creature, made up of two pupils and whatever simply could not be left out.
Wislawa SzymborskaSometimes I write quickly, sometimes I spend several weeks on a single poem. I would really love for readers not to be able to guess which of the poems took so much work!
Wislawa SzymborskaI cannot speak for more than an hour exclusively about poetry. At that point, life itself takes over again.
Wislawa SzymborskaNo one in my family has ever died of love. What happened, happened, but nothing myth-inspiring.
Wislawa SzymborskaAt the very beginning of my creative life I loved humanity. I wanted to do something good for mankind. Soon I understood that it isn't possible to save mankind.
Wislawa SzymborskaI'm working on the world, revised, improved edition, featuring fun for fools blues for brooders, combs for bald pates, tricks for old dogs.
Wislawa SzymborskaPoets yearn, of course, to be published, read, and understood, but they do little, if anything, to set themselves above the common herd and the daily grind.
Wislawa SzymborskaThis terrifying world is not devoid of charms, of the mornings that make waking up worthwhile.
Wislawa SzymborskaExistentialists are monumentally and monotonously serious; they don't like to joke.
Wislawa SzymborskaContemporary poets are skeptical and suspicious even, or perhaps especially, about themselves. They publicly confess to being poets only reluctantly, as if they were a little ashamed of it. But in our clamorous times it's much easier to acknowledge your faults, at least if they're attractively packaged, than to recognize your own merits, since these are hidden deeper and you never quite believe in them yourself.
Wislawa SzymborskaWhen it comes, you’ll be dreaming that you don’t need to breathe; that breathless silence is the music of the dark and it’s part of the rhythm to vanish like a spark.
Wislawa SzymborskaNothing can ever happen twice. In consequence, the sorry fact is that we arrive here improvised and leave without the chance to practice.
Wislawa SzymborskaAny knowledge that doesn't lead to new questions quickly dies out: it fails to maintain the temperature required for sustaining life.
Wislawa SzymborskaI slide my arm from under the sleeper's head and it is numb, full of swarming pins, on the tip of each, waiting to be counted, the fallen angels sit.
Wislawa SzymborskaAnimals don't even try to look any different from what nature intended. They humbly wear their shells, scales, spines, plumes, pelts, and down. ... The conscious impulse to change one's appearance is found only among humans.
Wislawa SzymborskaKeep up the good work, if only for a while, if only for the twinkling of a tiny galaxy.
Wislawa SzymborskaAll the best have something in common, a regard for reality, an agreement to its primacy over the imagination. Even the richest, most surprising and wild imagination is not as rich, wild and surprising as reality. The task of the poet is to pick singular threads from this dense, colorful fabric.
Wislawa SzymborskaIt's just not easy to explain to someone else what you don't understand yourself.
Wislawa SzymborskaGenerally speaking, life is so rich and full of variety; you have to remember all the time that there is a comical side to everything.
Wislawa SzymborskaEvery beginning is only a sequel, after all, and the book of events is always open halfway through.
Wislawa SzymborskaGod was finally going to believe in a man both good and strong, but good and strong are still two different men.
Wislawa SzymborskaNo day copies yesterday, no two nights will teach what bliss is in precisely the same way, with precisely the same kisses.
Wislawa SzymborskaEven boredom should be described with gusto. How many things are happening on a day when nothing happens?
Wislawa SzymborskaFour billion people on this earth, but my imagination is still the same. It's bad with large numbers. It's still taken by particularity. It flits in the dark like a flashlight, illuminating only random faces while all the rest go blindly by, never coming to mind and never really missed. . . . I can't tell you how much I pass over in silence.
Wislawa SzymborskaA Note Life is the only way to get covered in leaves, catch your breath on the sand, rise on wings; to be a dog, or stroke its warm fur; to tell pain from everything it's not; to squeeze inside events, dawdle in views, to seek the least of all possible mistakes. An extraordinary chance to remember for a moment a conversation held with the lamp switched off; and if only once to stumble upon a stone, end up soaked in one downpour or another, mislay your keys in the grass; and to follow a spark on the wind with your eyes; and to keep on not knowing something important.
Wislawa SzymborskaAll the best have something in common, a regard for reality, an agreement to its primacy over the imagination.
Wislawa SzymborskaWhen I mention somebody, that doesn't necessarily mean that I identify with him, personally or poetically. I'm extremely happy when I encounter poets who are different than I am. The ones who have their own distinct poetics provide me with the greatest experiences.
Wislawa SzymborskaInspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists. There is, there has been, there will always be a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. It's made up of all those who've consciously chosen their calling and do their job with love and imagination. Difficulties and setbacks never quell their curiosity. A swarm of new questions emerges from every problem that they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous 'I don't know.'
Wislawa Szymborska