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I 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 Szymborska

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Wislawa Szymborska
Age: 88 †
Born: 1923
Born: July 2
Died: 2012
Died: February 1
Critic
Essayist
Literary Critic
Mechanic
Poet
Translator
Writer
Kornik
Maria Wisława Anna Szymborska
Szymborska
Head
Numb
Waiting
Slides
Hands
Pins
Angels
Swarming
Fallen
Sleeper
Angel
Sleepers
Arms
Slide
Full
Counted

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I prefer the hell of chaos to the hell of order.
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I have sympathy for young people, for their growing pains, but I balk when these growing pains are pushed into the foreground, when you make these young people the only vehicles of lifes wisdom.
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They say the first sentence in any speech is always the hardest. Well, that one's behind me, anyway.
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I started earning a living as a poet rather early on.
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I don't know the role I'm playing. I only know it's mine, non-convertible.
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Even a graphomaniac is an extremely complicated person.
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When 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.
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Life lasts but a few scratches of the claw in the sand.
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