Poetry in Poznań

Recently I wrote about graffiti. Now I want to write about something connected - poetry on walls. It is a way of art unique for Jeżyce and Wilda, the quarters of Poznań. This initiative is quite new, because it was started in January 2015. The city spent in all 10,000 złoty on painting.

There are four poems mainly by Zbigniew Herbert and Tadeusz Różewicz. You can read them in Kościelna Street ("Nigdy o tobie"), in Sikorskiego/Robocza Street ("Domy przedmieścia"), in Słowackiego/Wawrzyniaka Street ("Jul Słowacki") and in Fabryczna Street ("Wiersz oddolny").

At first one poem was planned on a wall near to Łazarski Market, but experts said that the wall had been too much neglected. Because of that there isn't any poem in Łazarz quarter.

The poem "Wiersz oddolny" is very interesting, because two inhabitants of Poznań, Tomasz Genow and Joanna Pańczak, asked people: "Why are you here?", "What do you desire?", "Is there something that you afraid of?". They gathered answers and made this poem.

Everyday I pass by the poem by Herbert and I read it. I like this idea very much and I hope in Poznań will be more poems like that.

"Nigdy o tobie"

"Domy przedmieścia"

"Wiersz oddolny"

"Jul Słowacki"

(It isn't visible in a photo, so I rewrote it):

Wiersz oddolny

Mieszkam tu:

Bóg tak chciał lub to czysty przypadek

co wcale nie znaczy, że Bóg był przypadkiem

Gdy jestem dzieckiem

chciałbym być poszukiwaczem przygód,

Ale za nic nie chciałbym wojny

bo również jako dziecko ją przeżyłem

Chciałbym mieć dziewczynę,

boję się samotności

No chyba że jestem dziewczyną,

wtedy życzę sobie więcej uśmiechu

Niech ci co ustalają rozkłady jazdy robią to lepiej,

ja zaś zajmę się tym, by być szczęśliwym całe życie.

Graffiti

When somebody says "graffiti", all the people only think about vandalism and ugly pictures on the walls which ruin the image of old and sometimes historical buldings... But what about legal graffiti?

It is a phenomenon more and more popular in Poland. I was very happy when I heard that the authority in Poznań pointed some places in the city where you can freely paint what you want. They said that Poznań promotes art, not vandalism ("Poznań promuje sztukę, nie wandalizm"). The walls are the most often under flyovers or in the abandoned buldings.

For me the most beautiful graffiti is a crow in Lutycka/Dąbrowskiego Street. You can see it when you are going to Poznań from, for example, Tarnowo Podgórne (in direction to centre of Poznań).

But also there are some more graffitis:

The most popular city in Poland, known by their graffiti is Łódź. There are also one of the biggest mural in the Europe - a painting with 600m²:

Some others:

Some Polish female writers

Books of Polish male writers are very popular. I think everyone has heard about Jacek Dukaj, Andrzej Sapkowski, Andrzej Ziemiański, Jakub Ćwiek or Tomasz Kołodziejczak - they are very famous nowadays.
But what about Polish female writers? I want to present you the writers I like very much:

Dorota Terakowska
She is my favourite author. She wrote about serious problems, such as intolerate or disability, but she wrote about it in a light way. That makes her books interesting and because of that you can also read it very fast. Some her books are in set books in Poland, e.g. Tam, gdzie spadają anioły ("Where the angels fall down").

Angieszka Błotnicka
She write mainly for the teenagers. Her books are in genre crime novel. The most important thing is you can guess who is the culprit and it isn't as hard as in the books of Doyle. I used to read her books in primary school, but still I like them.

Beata Pawlikowska
She is a famous traveller and she writes the books from her journeys. I also like travelling and I find her books quite valuable. I like point of view of Pawlikowska - she doesn't describe monuments nor important places, but the mentality of people. She writes about things you can't read in a guide, e.g. daily rhytm of life people all over the world.

I very like and highly recommend these authors. In my opinion writers from Poland write much better than novelist from the West Europe or the USA and we should be proud of them.