RON ROMANOWSKI

Polish-Canadian writer Ron Romanowski’s latest poetry collection If Thirty Thousand Strikers Marched Today was published on May Day 2019 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Winnipeg General Strike.  Among many other performances Ron has been featured poet for the Winnipeg International Writers’ Festival Poetry Night.  Among his upcoming readings is one to commemorate those lost in the Polish Russian War of 1919-1920 at Holy Ghost Church in Winnipeg, Canada.

NEW CONDOLENCES MUST BE FASHIONED FROM THE OLD CONDOLENCES

Let me cite from the tomes of misery and its relief, from lamentations of old,

grace to be circled anew from some wise residues of the ancients.

So let memorial rains soak the roofs of heaven, roofs of our mansions of light:

ponds of cascading tears collected, released in sad showers over the portals of 

heaven

forming curtains of bright sadness pouring from lives made of tears

through which the bereaved of heaven stare out for their lost ones.

In the distances, in the wet choruses of grace, some are reunited

some find their listed beloved, drenched and unconstrained in form and limb,

familiar gaits and smiles, those souls that were lost, found again.

Let there be fragrance, unremembered nearly, rain-born, like that of Eden’s,

sainted world forest, the wet, the returned, the monsoon vision,

perfumed like the great universe, joy pollinated by the memorial rains,

the ever-refreshing cosmos, lying in dew on the lawns of sunrise,

trees in generous groves, pious on their turf, the ever ensconcing trees.

NOWE KONDOLENCJE MUSZĄ BYĆ UKSZTAŁTOWANE ZE STARYCH KONDOLENCJI

(NEW CONDOLENCES MUST BE FASHIONED FROM THE OLD CONDOLENCES)

Translated into Polish by Malgosia Kobylinski

Pozwól mi zacytować z tomów nędzy i jej ucieczki,

z lamentacji starszyzny,

łaska powstanie na nowo ze starożytnych mądrości.

Tak więc deszcze wspomnień roszą dachy nieba, 

dachy naszych świetlanych dworów:

stawy kaskadowych łez, złapanych i wypuszczonych 

smutnymi falami nad bramami nieba

tworzą zasłony jasnego smutku, utkane z życia łez

przez które żałobnicy nieba wypatrują swoich zmarłych.

W oddali, w mokrych refrenach łaski, 

odnajdują się niektórzy,

inni odnajdują listę ukochanych, przemoczoną, 

nieskrępowaną formą i materią,

znajome kroki i uśmiechy,

zagubione kiedyś dusze dziś odnalezione.

Niech rozejdzie się zapach, prawie zapomniany, 

narodzony z deszczu, jak zapach Edenu,

uświęcony świat las, mokrzy, powracający pielgrzymi, 

monsunowa wizja,

pachnąca jak wielki wszechświat, 

radość zapylana deszczami wspomnień,

wiecznie odradzający się kosmos 

leżący w rosie na trawnikach wschodu słońca,

drzewa w hojnych gajach, pobożne na ich terenie, 

na zawsze zaklęte drzewa.

Malgosia Kobylinski is a Polish writer who’s spent most of her life discovering the beauty of foreign lands, traveling places and drawing her inspiration from those travels.

Currently residing in Canada, she creates poems and poetic prose in both Polish and English. She is known in her community as a playwright, theatre director, and a poet.

Her work touches the deepest aspects of life from love and happiness through pain and suffering. Topics like religion, relationships, life choices, and feelings are dominant in her writing.

Occasionally she does translations to which she adds "her own spin". Writing is her way of connecting with humanity and God.

Read Ron’s work and more in Solum Journal Volume I.