ALICJA MARIA KUBERSKA

 

ALICJA MARIA KUBERSKA

 

The Bell

 

For whom does the bell toll?

The wind carries a heavy bronze sound —

it spills in a widening stream,

brushes the tops of trees,

reaches the clouds, then falls

like mist upon the land.

For whom does the bell toll?

People in black,

with hands full of flowers

and prayer upon their lips,

move slowly

toward their fate,

and the earth waits…

For whom does the bell toll?

For me. For you and the rest.

Its voice replaces the word

someday with today.

Undone letters and roads

crumble into dust.

Silence shifts the tracks of life.

 

There She Is

 

We pass each other almost every day

at the distance of fear.

Life forces us into

mutual indifference and acceptance.

Sometimes, like a misbehaving child,

she breaks something

to make us look

to stop us with a gesture.

I see her in the wind

that turns the fading leaves carelessly,

and in the way she stands

upright in frost-stiff stems.

She paints dry trees grey,

breaks branches with a crack.

She is silence

in clenched bird throats,

a glassy gaze.

She is everywhere around us,

reminding us of her presence.

She patiently explains

what inevitable necessity is.

I know she allows nothing to be taken.

We must leave

when the requiem is played,

inviting us into eternal sleep.

 

ALICJA MARIA KUBERSKA

 

ALICJA MARIA KUBERSKA – awarded Polish poetess, novelist, journalist, editor. In 2011 she published her first volume of poems entitled: “The Glass Reality”.  Her second volume “Analysis of Feelings”, was published in 2012. The third collection “Moments” was published in English in 2014, both in Poland and in the USA. In 2014, she also published the novel – “Virtual roses” and volume of poems “On the border of dream”. Next year her volume entitled “Girl in the Mirror” was published in the UK and “Love me”, “(Not) my poem” in the USA. In 2015 she also edited anthology entitled “The Other Side of the Screen”. In 2016 she edited two volumes: “Taste of Love” (USA), “Thief of Dreams” (Poland) and international anthology entitled “Love is like Air” (USA). Next year she published volume in Polish entitled “View from the Window”, collection of love poems in Arabic and English entitled “Love like arabesque (together with Egyptian poet Mandour Saleh Hikiel). In 2018 she published international anthology “Love Postcards” and her volume in Russian entitled “Selected poems”. She is a chief editor of series of anthologies entitled “Metaphor of Contemporary” (Poland). Her poems have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, the UK, Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania, Spain, Turkey, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Israel, the USA, Canada, India, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Uzbekistan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, South Africa, Zambia, Nigeria and Australia. Her volumes were translated into Albanian language by famous poet and academic Mr Jeton Kelmendi, into Telugu language by famous Hindu poet Mr Lanka Siva Rama Prasad, into Turkish by famous Turkish poet Metin Cengiz, into Italian by famous Italian poetess Maria Miraglia and into Arabic by famous Syrian poetess Shurouk Hammouud. She won: distinction (2014) and medal (2015) on Nosside poetry competition in Italy, statuette in Lithuania (2015), medal of European Academy Science, Arts and Letters in France (2018)), award of Cultural Festival International “Tra le parole e l’ infinito” Italy (2018) She was also twice nominated to the Pushcart Prize in the USA. Alicja Kuberska is a member of the Polish Writers Associations in Warsaw (Poland), E- literaci (Poland)and IWA Bogdani, (Albania). She is also a member of directors’ board of Soflay Literature Foundation (Pakistan), Our Poetry Archive (India). She is Polish Ambassador of Culture of The Inner Child Press (the USA). She belongs to Editorial Advisory Board of Sahitya Anand (India) and IPA Editorial (India).