Absolutely amazing trip to Warsaw for three days. Grzegorz Wroblewski was an incredible host. He took me under his wing and I will never ever forget it. An amazing warm genuine human being and poet.
On the last day the poet, translator, future diplomat, and historian Dorota Sobstel was my host. Again, another incredible human being.
I saw an outdoor play about the second Warsaw uprising (after the first Jewish ghetto uprising). 250,000 Polish civilians were murdered in 60 days. Warsaw was in ruins. They started the uprising because they believed the Russians were close to the capital and were going to liberate them. However, the Russians only watched and let the Germans do their dirty work. Then they moved in. And took over.
I went to Warsaw, in part, to meet lots of poets and editors. Grzegorz introduced me. We were hanging in the old town of Warsaw as part of the bombardment of poems. Polish and Chilean poetry fell from the sky.
Very grateful I got to see this. Fantastic!!!
Here is a wee video of the event on youtube:
Warsaw bombardmentLabels: bombardment, poetry, Poland, warsaw, World War 2