RIP Wislawa Szymborska

By tristero

The world just became a lot less mordantly silly and quirky and profound.

A few years ago, I set this poem of hers. It was the final piece in a suite of songs that dealt with different kinds of freedoms. Miracle Fair, and so many others, have haunted me.

I agree with her friends: it was an awful tragedy that she won the Nobel Prize. For one thing, that implies that this most human and approachable of contemporary poets was somehow beyond the reach of us mere mortals. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Thank you, Ms. Szymborska, for all the beauty and joy, and for so much love.