Lidia Kosk

[translations by Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka]

The Moon above the Wild Apple Tree

I find you
peeking into the apartment’s windows—
the moon
suspended above the wild apple tree

you reside on the moon
whose growing and fading
we used to follow
from our balcony

but this cold glare—
I search for the warmth of your eyes
when you stood beside me
in the dazzle of the full moon

today in its next phase
with a hazy ring predicting bad weather
the moon glances uncertainly
from the depth of secret shadows

you did not hide deeply
you had no liking for rocky
craters, waterless deserts
and you needed my presence

Light in the Tunnel of Helplessness

A man reached the window
The bleakness of dawn hit him
The pain spread with remembrance
Radiated from the horizon of clouds
Filled and pressed him into nowhere

Suddenly a sharp ray explodes
Brightens the park and awakens the trees
Straightening out their green folds of moss
On the musty bark of numb trunks
They move in a shining line
Towards the white birch whose arms
Stretch out in the grace of radiance
Embrace the man behind the window

The scalpel of light cuts the nothingness

I Don’t Want an Echo

Yesterday the day before yesterday long ago
Deeds decisions events
Close. Perpetually fresh
Accumulation and emptiness

Long ago the day before yesterday yesterday
I don’t want a repeat. I want today
A life with a taste of tomorrow
I expect a visit

Heart’s Memory

Why do you roar with such sadness, oh sea
You have infinity
Why do you lose yourself, oh wind
You have countless returns
Why do you burst out, oh spring
You have yearly repeats
Why do you wail, oh empty tree
You have new leaves
The heart of a heart heard no more
Has only memory

The Black Horse

turns his raised head towards the arriving people
tosses his unruly mane
can’t rein in shivers galloping
under the tensed skin

hooves begin to dance
nostrils distend
catching the wind outside
the stable’s window

the people, they are leaving
his throaty neigh resounds with
longing
desire
wrath
―gallops above trees of the old park
chasing the departing poets

Lidia Kosk is the author of fifteen books. Her works have been translated into thirty-three languages. Poems and prose have been published in literary journals and anthologies in the U.S., Poland, Hungary, Spain, Russia, and Japan as well as featured on public radio in the U.S. and Poland, in the Catalonia-based international Multiple Versions and several multimedia video presentations. Philip A. Olsen arranged a series of her poems into choral compositions as the “Polish Triptych,” performed in the U.S., Peru, Portugal, and Spain. Sal Ferrantelli composed a score for “Szklana góra” (“Glass Mountain”), with the soprano Laura Kafka-Price singing at the world premiere in Washington, DC, in 2019. Lidia resides in Warsaw, Poland. Her most recent books published in the U.S. include Meadows of Memory (2019) and the multilingual Nine Poems in Nine Incarnations (2026).