Szymborska, Wislawa. “The End and the Beginning.” Miracle Fair: Selected Poems of Wislawa Szymborska. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001.
This poem is so vivid that I pictured it as the scene behind the credits at the end of a war movie. Stay with me. Hear me out. In the poem, Szymborska gently, methodically runs through the list of what must be done at the end of a war: clean up debris, repair houses, rebuild bridges, carry on. Stay strong. So, imagine the credits rolling. The movie has ended, the war is over. Behind the steady stream of names, cast and crew, people survivors are shell shocked and sweeping, weeping and washing, hungry and hammering, biting their lips to continue life as best as they can; as they know how. Somehow, I see this as a stark black and white. More dramatic (or depressing) that way.
My favorite line: “From time to time someone must still dig up a rusted argument from underneath a bush and haul it to the garbage dump.” What does that mean? Maybe two someones can’t decide who really “won” the war. Maybe someone else is adament it rages still…just somewhere else. Arguments that have weathered and rusted from constant exposure.
BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust and the chapter “Poetry Pleasers” (p189).
~*LunaSea*~ 