Raptularz

In her ninety-fourth year, Urszula Kozioł remains creatively active. Her new volumes published over the last few years by Wydawnictwo Literackie, such as Klangor [Clangour], Ucieczki [Escapes], Znikopis [Disappearoscript], Momenty [Moments], have above all been meditations on ageing and non-existence. Each of these poems was written as if it were to be her last. Journal is a notebook made up of fragments of her own creativity, a sort of personal anthology in which key moments can be found: her one-poem debut in 1956, following hard upon a political thaw that put an end to the Stalinist period, the politically tense year of 1968, and personal events, such as the death of her husband, which for the poet meant the end of any desire of love or closeness. 

A friend of Wisława Szymborska, Kozioł has received many awards for her poetry, including international awards. Her work has been translated into many languages. Always having been curious about the world, she is widely-travelled. Until very recently, she was the literary editor of the Wrocław monthly Odra. Her later volumes were written in a very frugal style; the poems are precise, philosophically speaking, but also raw, sometimes even brutal, for example: when she writes of her battles against memory lapses. Journal reminds us of the fact that Kozioł introduced a lyricism, folk rhythms and an unforgettable grace in phrasing into the sparse, rational diction of Polish poetry following 1956. Here, too, we find the attempt at writing a final verse, a verse-epistle, which the poet addresses to her “imaginary lover”. Written in prose… The last poems of poets often constitute an attempt at superseding their own style. Kozioł has determined to toss nothing away.