JOANNA KALINOWSKA

JOANNA KALINOWSKA

MATER DOLOROSA

I sat, I was hurt and in tears

I was immersed in the deadly anguish

which was screaming in my heart

death has become our daily bread

bomb explosions

screams of raped women

begging children

assassins with extraordinary barbarity

crossed the threshold of madness with nothing incomparable

fear of death will not leave us anymore

who would not feel pain looking at his mother

who is going through the death of his son

who can refrain from crying

mercy

mercy

for this unfortunate creature

it's only a ten-year-old child

this is my son who could save the world

and now I'm lonely

I  am petrified because of pain

and still crying

I want to have him again with me

I am contemporary Niobe

mother of all killed sons

you will also be afraid to see

your beloved dead

or mutilated by a bomb

one day

the sword will pierce your soul too

Note: Niobe, daughter of Tantal, king of Thebes and wife of Amfion, mother of 7 sons killed by Apollo and 7 daughters killed by Artemis, broken by pain, she was turned into stone by the gods.

Mater Dolorosa in Latin it literally means Mother of Sorrows.

WALL

the wall is just ... just ...

facing you and it has a closed window

on the right there is photo of your mother as a young girl

with a look and smile of a startled doe

which resembles our daughter's smile so much

on the windowsill there are flowers and a statuette of elf bought in Ireland

it was our honeymoon and you woke me up with kisses

it seemed that we were beginning a journey of life holding hands

it's clear that the wall is there, it exists like me

sometimes you will stop with a blind sight

but I have a heart that has never stopped to loving you

do not pretend that nothing has happened,

do not ignore me in this way

kill this silence before it finishes us

it is a silence that has a magnetically destructive power

and a beam of radiation suppressing every sound

get angry ... raise your voice…cry ... cry

I am here, in front of you,

How can you not hear me?

Look into my eyes, you do not see me,

honey, you do not see me anymore?

show passion ... anger ... jealousy ...

any reaction but show it to me

I'm screaming and you're silent

with unseeing eyes and closed mouth

silence...

outside the window, the rain stuns the grass

heads of flowers rise ... and only one tear

I close my eyes ... silence ... I disappear ...

only the white wall remains

CARRIER OF MYSTERY

carrier of mystery

smiles to herself

she sees the universe  enclosed in a droplet

she is a priestess

guarding the gates between the worlds

and she is the gate herself

chosen by a soul

what's going to come back to her?

it is in her but it is not her

it feeds on her blood

but it gives her pure light

from which love will flow

the purest in the world

TRANSLATION- ALICJA MARIA KUBERSKA

LANGUAGE CONSULTATION- MAUREEN CLIFFORD

JOANNA KALINOWSKA

JOANNA KALINOWSKA, says about herself, that she was born under a wandering star. She, as a child (a daughter of an officer), often moved from one place to another. These constant changes taught her the openness and the willingness to meet new people and places. She spent many years in Poland. Fifteen years ago she moved to Italy. She has always been writing but she publishes now. Her book “Ascoltando Azzurro –Wsłuchana w błękit” was written so that people who speak different languages can express the same feelings. Three volumes of her poetry were edited and her poems were printed in various anthologies and magazines. She writes and publishes in two languages, both Polish and Italian. She loves these two countries. They are her homelands. She arranged “The Amici Italia-Polonia Association”. Its headquarters there is in Taranto — the city where she lives and works. She is a teacher, but she actually works as a translator and an activist of the Polish community. She is a member of the Warsaw Association of Literature’s Translators. Joanna works for the Italian literary-cultural group “La Vallisa”, too. She also cooperates with magazine of this group. She is the initiator and organizer of many cultural and social events.