National Poetry Month: Week 1

To celebrate National Poetry Month, several of us are sharing poetry with you on Thursdays in April. Today's poem is about something we can all use more of, wherever and whenever we can find it. It's about HOPE. 

I love this poem because it speaks eloquently to something I often find difficult, praising the mutilated world. In the face of refugees, war, executioners, and sometimes oblivion, the poet reminds us that though the world may be mangled and marred, we must still look for and honor even the smallest signs of hope. 

Try to Praise the Mutilated World
by Adam Zagajewski

Translated by Clare Cavanagh

Try to praise the mutilated world.

Remember June's long days,

and wild strawberries, drops of rosé wine.

The nettles that methodically overgrow

the abandoned homesteads of exiles.

You must praise the mutilated world.

You watched the stylish yachts and ships;

one of them had a long trip ahead of it,

while salty oblivion awaited others.

You've seen the refugees going nowhere,

you've heard the executioners sing joyfully.

You should praise the mutilated world.

Remember the moments when we were together

in a white room and the curtain fluttered.

Return in thought to the concert where music flared.

You gathered acorns in the park in autumn

and leaves eddied over the earth's scars.

Praise the mutilated world

and the gray feather a thrush lost,

and the gentle light that strays and vanishes

and returns.

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Adam Zagajewski, "Try to Praise the Mutilated World." Without End: New and Selected Poems, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002.

You can read more about the poet here. 

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Be sure to check in with Kym, Kat, and Sarah for more hopeful poetry today, and join us next Thursday for more poems in celebration of National Poetry Month. (And remember that any time is good for poetry, not just Thursdays in April!)