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Poets 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 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
Course
Herds
Common
Grind
Read
Published
Littles
Poets
Anything
Daily
Little
Poet
Understood
Yearn
Courses
Herd

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I like being near the top of a mountain. One can't get lost here.
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All is mine but nothing owned, nothing owned for memory, and mine only while I look.
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Out of every hundred people, those who always know better: fifty-two.
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In the language of poetry, where every word is weighed, nothing is usual or normal. Not a single stone and not a single cloud above it. Not a single day and not a single night after it. And above all, not a single existence, not anyone's existence in this world.
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But they know about us, they know, the four corners, and the chairs nearby us. Discerning shadows also know, and even the table keeps quiet.
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All imperfection is easier to tolerate if served up in small doses.
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Every beginning is only a sequel, after all, and the book of events is always open halfway through.
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When 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.
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Today when two people decide upon a thoughtless and precipitate abbreviation of the physical space between them, they think, at least at that moment, that they're mutually attracted and drawn together by an overwhelming force.
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Animals 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.
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Whether you want it or not, your genes have a political past, your skin a political tone. your eyes a political color. ... you walk with political steps on political ground.
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I cannot speak for more than an hour exclusively about poetry. At that point, life itself takes over again.
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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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Get to know other worlds, if only for comparison.
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I'm working on the world, revised, improved edition, featuring fun for fools blues for brooders, combs for bald pates, tricks for old dogs.
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Poetic talent doesn't operate in a vacuum. There is a spirit of Polish poetry.
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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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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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I'm drowning in papers.
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Existentialists are monumentally and monotonously serious they don't like to joke.
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