Poet Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004) lived through some of the most tumultuous events of the 20th century. His Polish parents having fled Poland during a political upheaval, he was born in Lithuania when it was ruled by tsarist Russia. Then came the Great War, the Russian Revolution, and the Russian Civil War. His family returned to Poland, and life seemed to settle down.
He was 21 when he published his first poetry collection, Poem of the Frozen Time, in 1932. The next year, Hitler became dictator of Germany. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Milosz became part of the underground resistance. After the war, he joined the new communist government’s diplomatic corps and was stationed in Paris and then Washington, D.C. In 1951, he defected to the West.
To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.
Some Tuesday Readings
Close and Slow: “The Journey” by Mary Oliver – Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street.
Words we don’t say – poem by Franco Amati at Garbage Notes.
From “Ruined Abbeys” – poem by Peter Levi at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).
The Shape of Someday – poem by Michelle Ortega at Everyday Poems.
“The Owl and the Pussycat,” poem by Edward Lear – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient & Modern.
Tell No One – poem by Elizabeth Wickland at Rabbit Room Poetry.
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