21 Comments
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Neeta Mohla's avatar

Such a fresh poem with universal appeal.♥️♥️

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M. Ann Reed's avatar

Thank you for your reply, Svetlana, and further insights.

Yes, the peony taught my hand to calligraph her effortlessly.

She truly amazed me. Then I began Dr. Stephen Harrod

Buhner's "Secret Teachings of Plants." My Chinese students

in Nanjing always liked classes in the Chinese Garden where

plants helped them write their best. They grew up on biognosis.

Be well,

Melissa

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Alexander Schmidt's avatar

That is an experience to behold, and very insightful. So you know, at first I read “peony” as poetry (and Svetlana’s reply was no exception).

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Svetlana Litvinchuk's avatar

What a humbling and empowering experience to learn from a peony. A fine teacher. I remember reading "Secret Life of Plants." One of the books I credit with shaping my sense of self and the natural world.

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M. Ann Reed's avatar

Though I often appreciate Wislawa Szumborska's creative work, this time I was disappointed. Plants are always communicating. We can understand them if we develop biognosis. Have experienced what they communicate. As a Chinese calligrapher and painter, a peony taught my hand into peony life-lines of communication.

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Svetlana Litvinchuk's avatar

Yes, couldn't agree more, this is such an important point. I think on some level the poet would agree. I read into this poem some acknowledgment of all the ways we are not separate, even in the expression over the sadness of all the ways we are. Your calligraphic work sounds beautiful and fascinating, so much nuance in the structures of a peony.

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Karin Andersen's avatar

Whereas she is talking to them, and somehow they do hear her, that's the undercurrent of it all - we are strangers yet we aren't... or at least that's what I feel. There is an unspoken reciprocity - "what we don't know brings us closer too" What a beautiful poem, thank you for sharing.

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Svetlana Litvinchuk's avatar

Yes! I love this interpretation; I feel the same way.

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Alexander Schmidt's avatar

This poem parallels Rilke’s “Rose, Oh Pure Contradiction” in interesting ways. For example, both poems could be depicting the circumstance of a mirror (talking to oneself, revealing necessary information about oneself) unknowingly experienced, triggering thoughts that otherwise wouldn’t spawn, through a plant. Rilke’s poem is more of a Brahman-type revelation, and Szymborska’s poem is more of a secular-type revelation. Sparks for rereading the poem: the above are just thoughts, off the cuff, and require of me more time to think through.

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Svetlana Litvinchuk's avatar

I love this deep dive analysis into this poem, Alexander, along with the notion of plant as mirror. Even as the plant is taking the role of the Other, it is a conversation the poet is essentially having with the nature of her own existence to bridge the divide between other and self- an effort to seek wholeness. Naming what separates plant from human, becomes an attempt at traversing the distance between them. Thank you for your thoughtful comment.

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Alexander Schmidt's avatar

It is interesting too, extending your comment a bit, to think of a mirror as a chance to “seek wholeness.” Further, in a way, and to refer back to the poem, that the plants do not reciprocate a conversation: language itself, in this poem, is the conduit of this mirror and is a mirror; the more potent mirror as well. The speaker is the creator and projector of (the) language much like their image in a mirror. An interesting start to that investigation, would be to focus on the poem’s bookends (first stanza and last stanza) as defining this chance of wholeness through language as language (defining what a mirror, as a concept, is): “Talking with you is essential and impossible” “Our one-sided acquaintance…” Then to flush that through the middle of the poem, the making of lists, for example, is an important feature, and is the way a speaker can create themselves (activity of observation and implications of function and purpose) through naming, like in Genesis or Ted Berrigan (poems). Yes, It’s kind of exciting to name those two phenomenons in the same sentence.

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Karin Andersen's avatar

yes!

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Megha Sood's avatar

How often do we ignore the wisdom of plants around us?. This poem keeps us grounded and rooted in nature. the closing lines are utterly beautiful: "Urgent in this hurried life

and postponed to never. " What else can you expect from Wislawa Szymborska.

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Svetlana Litvinchuk's avatar

Agreed, we can all stand to be a little more plantlike. Always so grateful for this reminder.

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T R Poulson's avatar

Traveling together..really interesting turn

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Svetlana Litvinchuk's avatar

Yes, the turn is so strong here, essential to the subtle shift by the end of the poem.

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Emma Goldman-Sherman's avatar

Wow! Fabulous! I will be writing an after poem…

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Svetlana Litvinchuk's avatar

This is such a lovely idea. So glad to see this poem inspire another poem.

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Catherine Gonick's avatar

Very refreshing.

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Svetlana Litvinchuk's avatar

Her work is often such a breath of fresh air. Thank you for reading!

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Catherine Gonick's avatar

I read her whenever I see her online. Tx for posting. I love her lack of cant.

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