I like maps because they lie,
Because they give no access to the vicious truth...
---Lines from a poem called "Maps" published in New Yorker Magazine, April 14, 2014. These lines were written by an 88-year old Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996. This is the last poem she was writing at the time of her death in 2012.
Given 19th and 20th century history, I'm not surprised the poet comes from Poland -- that poor country always gets squeezed by its neighbors. I like all 3 of these, especially the last one -- it looks like green flames coming from the top of her head.
ReplyDeleteI think of all the horrors an 88-year old Polish women would have seen/known in her lifetime...vicious truths, indeed.
ReplyDelete