Once in a while it vanishes – in the sense that I become deaf to beauty for a week or two or three.
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKIOnce in a while it vanishes – in the sense that I become deaf to beauty for a week or two or three.
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKIIn summer the empire of insects spreads.
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKIA blessing because it brings about a movement, an energy which, when it peaks, creates a poem. Or a moment of happiness.
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKII don’t need to explain why it’s a curse.
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKIAnd tracing the labyrinthine ways of your mind, the haphazard vagaries of your thoughts at ease,
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKICities at daybreak are no one’s, and have no names. And I, too, have no name, dawn, the stars growing pale, the train picking up speed.
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKIDefend the value of the spiritual experience and if somebody tells you it’s an old fashioned notion, laugh loudly and serenely.
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKIAnd now, advice for beginning mystics.
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKIBe sober, be intelligent, be educated, rely on the tangible reality as long as you can.
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKIBut I was only a chaotic walker, nobody could stop me; even a totalitarian state was not able to control my daydreams, my poetic fascinations, the pattern of my walking.
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKIRead for yourselves, read for the sake of your inspiration, for the sweet turmoil in your lovely head.
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKIThis coming and going of the inner life – because this is what it is – is a curse and a blessing.
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKIMore ocean than terra firma. More shadow than form.
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKIA certain traveler who knew many continents was asked what he found most remarkable of all.
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKIThere exists a meaning, hidden from day to day, but accessible in moments of greatest attentiveness, in those moments when consciousness loves the world.
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKIWhat’s astonishing and refreshing is his ability to combine the reporter’s perspective with a deep knowledge of poetry, including pre-Islamic Arab poems.
ADAM ZAGAJEWSKI