DOROTA JOLANTA SZUMILAS

DOROTA SZUMILAS

CLOSING YOUR EYELIDS

Traveling awoke an unspeakable longing

penetrating painfully

Regardless of the aim intensified fear, insecurity,

loneliness

Traveling without someone close was like

closing your eyelids when wind blows harder into your eyes.

Do not weep

God loves you

the animal that you have taken in loves you

A book is your Friend

They will protect you

against negligence

AFTER-THE-WINTER

Spring is bursting in

by the force of winter almost gone

the winter is giving in

this year

for now at least

is the winter gone?

Is spring here?

Or is it something in-between

unnamed

unspecified

weather conditions

ALL SOULS DAY OF FORGOTTEN POETS

Poets

Forgotten when alive

Leave like all others

Their world

Recorded in perhaps a poem less known

Next to the burning candle

Let it burn as to prove

That we remember them

PROUD HOPE

A hope needs a support

she is still giving a weak light

of the remains of the past day

trying to force in

its right to exist at the twighlight

she is proud

it won’t ask for support

she is trying to lean no strong accords

she will manage. She will load its batteries and give

her warmth at the right moment

of her life. She is not a mother of naive

and doubting. She is a mother and a father

of survival

“NO” AND “YES”

A “no”

Full of meaning

Outright

Symbolic

Liberating

Finalizing things

The “yes”

Agreeable

Joyful

Building

Friendly

Both of them

Decisive

QUESTION – ANSWER

I am searching and asking for directions

The surrounding silence

Is turning away.  I am asking once more

Still nothing

I keep searching and wandering

And there is still a silence

I am writing, speaking, informing

There is a response one or two

I am stopping

Listening intently

Finally!

SILENCE

Silence is changing into a word

A word like a sun covered by clouds

Seen when the cover of clouds

Goes away to other distant worlds

Silence is changing into stillness

When words are too numerous or too few

To speak out the quiet  thought

Of reflection that is a brother

A POET OF LONELINESS

a poet of sadness

or a poet of bliss

perhaps

lof oneliness

and of quiet

bliss

hidden in it

PARENTS

I love you my dear Parents

For your troubles, for your care and concern

For your kind word when needed

Even when it is a sharp one

I thank you for the gift of life

For your loving support

For your help in most difficult moments

For sharing my joys

I thank you for the patience of your heart

As bringing up a child is a difficult task

For a warm home and family

That is like a rock.

Thank you. If these two words

Can express  what I feel

Let it be like a beautiful flower

WINTER

a bit os snow in February

and we found the right order kept in our memory

cyclicity of life cause it used to be like this

cause it has to be or should be like this

The curtain of thoughts uncovered delicately

does not allow the sun in… it hasn't risen yet

one can see the shadow of hope in the dark

this is the world

that we have to go to again.

(TRANSL. BY DOROTA B.  ZEGAROWSKA)

DOROTA JOLANTA SZUMILAS

DOROTA JOLANTA SZUMILAS is a graduate of the Institute of Information Science and Book Studies at the University of Warsaw and the Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Warsaw. Her poetry books have been translated into German, Ukranian, Belarusian and her poems have also been translated into English, Russian, Slovak and Pashto. She is a member of the Polish Association of Authors and Siwobrowych Poetów Association in Krakow, Polish Association of Authors, Polish Haiku Association.  Her published poems and literary views appear in: Poezja Dzisiaj (Poetry Today ed. by Barbara i Aleksander Nawroccy), Kwartalnik Kulturalny (ed. by Andrzej Debowski), Radostowa, Hybryda (artistic and literary writings of the Association of Creative Pol-art in Krakow), Podlaski Tygodnik Kulturalny, Prace Pienińskie, Migotania, sZAFa, Znaj and the Pisarze.pl. Dorota Szumilas is one of the authors of the second ed. of ‘Contemporary writers of Poland’. She gave speeches at both the Slavic Poetry Festival and World Poetry Day in Warsaw.