Poetry: Alicja Maria Kuberska, Poland

Exclusive: Poetry from Europe and other Western locations: Curated by Agron Shele

Alicja Maria Kuberska

The train

I got onto the train of life

With nothing,

Without clothes,

Without  feelings.

A blank sheet of paper.

Blotting-paper absorbing everything.

I will get out burdened with bundles of

Recollections and impressions.

I packed them carefully.

Some of them faded, like

Ink from old letters.

I tied them with ribbons of all colors.

These white ones are my

Inessential remembrances

And black ones are heavy and traumatic.

I met many passengers,

Throughout this long journey

And free-riders too,

Who were picked  up

At different  stops.

Each meeting,

Even this, the shortest one,

Like a flash of sun or

Flutter of butterfly wings

Enriched and filled my bag of experiences

The Drawer with Memories

In the modern world,
full of rush and brilliant inventions,

I am a living relic of a bygone age.

I keep some strange treasures

and a sheaf of yellowed letters

inside a sentimental drawer.
I impart colours to the faded memories
and I allow the past moments to return.

Just for me
the lilacs bloom again in a long-gone garden.
The dried four-leaf clover foretells good luck.
Someone, who is no more, worries about my health.
Love spells, from many years ago, return to me
and the withered petals of red roses smell intense.

From the position of an omniscient being
I read the sentences from the old correspondence.
I carefully study the art of life

and gain respect for these by-gone events.

Tree and I

with my body, I am near to the roots

with my thoughts, I reach the longest branches

I soar towards the sun

I caress the green canopy

the tree records years in its rings

warm-cold, dry-wet

and I record emotions on a piece of paper

sadness-joy, love-loneliness

we are dear to each other

often, I embrace its trunk

maybe it will remember the touch of my hands

rustle with memories.

Dance on the Dew

Barefoot Aurora
Dance with me on the dew.

Look,
The night scattered jewels are everywhere.
They glisten on the leaves and grass.
The spiders wove rainbow necklaces for us.     .

Is it the Milky Way
Laying on the ground, or another spell?

The jealous day will hide the drops in the casket of time
And dry the tears of the moon by warm sunshine.

We only have a moment to dance,
When the night has not yet fallen asleep.
The day did not wake up until to the very end

Alicja Maria Kuberska ( Poland)

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).In 2017 she edited “View from the window” ( Poland) and “Love like Arabesque” ( USA) She also edits series of anthologies entitled “ Metaphor of Contemporary” ( Poland)

Her poems have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines in Poland, Czech Republic, the USA, the UK, Belgium, Albania, Spain, Argentina, Chile, Israel, Canada, India, Italy, Uzbekistan, South Korea and Australia.

Alicja Kuberska is a member of the Polish Writers Associations in Warsaw, Poland and IWA Bogdani, Albania. She is also a member of directors’ board of Soflay Literature Foundation.

Setu, May 2018