Second Space Quotes

“They needed me only in misfortune,
To conjure heavenly powers.
So they could come and be saved
From a tumor in the lungs or a viral infection.”
― Czeslaw Milosz, Second Space: New Poems – A Meditative Lyric on Aging, Mortality, and Faith

“Jackdaws on the tower

jackdaws are preached on the tower outside my window.
Another year gone and nothing has come of my resolutions.
The cities, more and more populous, in an opulent sunset.
Awaiting the end, as then, in Antioch, Rome, and Alexandria.

A promise was given to us, though it was thousand years ago.
And you did not return, O savior and Teacher. They marked me with your sign and sent me out to serve.
I put on the burden of ecclesiastical robes. And the mask of benevolent smile.
People come to me and force me to touch their wounds,
Their fear of death, and the misery of passing time.
Could I dare to confess to them that I am a priest without faith,
That I pray every day for the grace of understanding,
Though there is in me only a hope of hope?
There are days when people seem to me a festival
Of marionettes dancing at the edge of nothingness.
And the torture inflicted on the Son of Man on the cross
Occurred so that the world could show its indifference.”
― Czeslaw Milosz, Second Space: New Poems – A Meditative Lyric on Aging, Mortality, and Faith

“I should be dead already, but there's work to do.”
― Czeslaw Milosz, Second Space: New Poems – A Meditative Lyric on Aging, Mortality, and Faith

“Farewell Piorewiczowna, unasked for shadow
I don't even remember your first name.”
― Czeslaw Milosz, Second Space: New Poems – A Meditative Lyric on Aging, Mortality, and Faith