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Czeslaw Milosz
Feb. 23rd, 2026 10:40 pm"Leave/to poets a moment of happiness,/Otherwise your world will perish." - In Warsaw
The first time I heard of Czeslaw Milosz was while watching Under The Tuscan Sun starring Diane Lane. I've been a little bit obsessed ever since, looking for him at the library but always coming short, not because his books aren't there, but because every time I read one of his poems, all I want to do is sit down with them one by one and write down in the margins the meaning of his references, his words, the context of when it was written, dive into his poetry the way a detective would follow clues at the heart of a murder scene. Borrowing from the library isn't enough.
I first wrote poetry when I was a child, around 12 or 13 years old. Two of them in particular my grandmother kept for me, neatly transcribed on her typewriter and put in the pages of her binder somewhere between recipes and short stories she found in magazines. I don't have access to them anymore, never thought to take them with me when I cut ties with my family.
The first of these two poems was something you would expect a young girl to write: an imaginary telling of what my first kiss would be like, aptly titled "Mon Premier Baiser" (My First Kiss). The second one though surprised me when I reread it somewhere in my twenties. The story of an emperor looking at his subjects from his palace, gently observing as they help the city grow in prosperity. The ending of the poem revealed that the emperor was a tree, a weeping willow, suddenly witnessing war intruding on its land. I don't remember what it was titled.
I also have vague recollections of writing a poem about a spider being killed for being at the wrong place, wrong time? Sounds somewhat right.
The poetry I wrote later on during my teenage years I managed to salvage through an old blog of mine. Most of it was in French, but I was also experimenting in English, much to my father's displeasure about it. I might share those here at one point.
I don't remember when, but somewhere during my early 20's, I was certain I didn't like poetry. Must have to do with the mandatory French literature classes I had to take during my first try at college. I am not a fan of French poetry, especially not the early French kind, which are of course the first ones we have to learn about. Prior to college, I never read any poetry besides song lyrics (my high school is still known to this day as amongst the 20 worst high schools in my home province, that gives you an idea of the level of education we received there). It's only during my second try at uni, choosing to study English literature, that I came into contact with English poetry and, this time, it clicked. I've loved poetry ever since.
When reading poets, I tend to navigate towards more contemporary authors (20th century to now), although I have a lot of love for the Romantics and others before their time. I love Button Poetry, they have published amazing poets and they have a Youtube channel where you can hear their poems in their own voices as well. I particularly like Still Can't Do My Daughter's Hair by William Evans and Olivia Gatwood's poems.
I love how poetry allows to write stories with a minimal amount of words, each of them important to the whole. I see poems as enigmas, codes to decrypt and understand a person, a time and space, or myself. Most often all of these at the same time. Not all poem hit the same, sometimes I go through most of an anthology without feeling a thing, and then I am hit with a single one that make me shed tears and it makes it all worth it.
Poetry is also one of the tools I use to create spells. The attention I put in creating poetry in general is the exact same I need for spells to feel like they're going to do something. Poetry can be powerful given the right words.
I really love poetry.
The first time I heard of Czeslaw Milosz was while watching Under The Tuscan Sun starring Diane Lane. I've been a little bit obsessed ever since, looking for him at the library but always coming short, not because his books aren't there, but because every time I read one of his poems, all I want to do is sit down with them one by one and write down in the margins the meaning of his references, his words, the context of when it was written, dive into his poetry the way a detective would follow clues at the heart of a murder scene. Borrowing from the library isn't enough.
I first wrote poetry when I was a child, around 12 or 13 years old. Two of them in particular my grandmother kept for me, neatly transcribed on her typewriter and put in the pages of her binder somewhere between recipes and short stories she found in magazines. I don't have access to them anymore, never thought to take them with me when I cut ties with my family.
The first of these two poems was something you would expect a young girl to write: an imaginary telling of what my first kiss would be like, aptly titled "Mon Premier Baiser" (My First Kiss). The second one though surprised me when I reread it somewhere in my twenties. The story of an emperor looking at his subjects from his palace, gently observing as they help the city grow in prosperity. The ending of the poem revealed that the emperor was a tree, a weeping willow, suddenly witnessing war intruding on its land. I don't remember what it was titled.
I also have vague recollections of writing a poem about a spider being killed for being at the wrong place, wrong time? Sounds somewhat right.
The poetry I wrote later on during my teenage years I managed to salvage through an old blog of mine. Most of it was in French, but I was also experimenting in English, much to my father's displeasure about it. I might share those here at one point.
I don't remember when, but somewhere during my early 20's, I was certain I didn't like poetry. Must have to do with the mandatory French literature classes I had to take during my first try at college. I am not a fan of French poetry, especially not the early French kind, which are of course the first ones we have to learn about. Prior to college, I never read any poetry besides song lyrics (my high school is still known to this day as amongst the 20 worst high schools in my home province, that gives you an idea of the level of education we received there). It's only during my second try at uni, choosing to study English literature, that I came into contact with English poetry and, this time, it clicked. I've loved poetry ever since.
When reading poets, I tend to navigate towards more contemporary authors (20th century to now), although I have a lot of love for the Romantics and others before their time. I love Button Poetry, they have published amazing poets and they have a Youtube channel where you can hear their poems in their own voices as well. I particularly like Still Can't Do My Daughter's Hair by William Evans and Olivia Gatwood's poems.
I love how poetry allows to write stories with a minimal amount of words, each of them important to the whole. I see poems as enigmas, codes to decrypt and understand a person, a time and space, or myself. Most often all of these at the same time. Not all poem hit the same, sometimes I go through most of an anthology without feeling a thing, and then I am hit with a single one that make me shed tears and it makes it all worth it.
Poetry is also one of the tools I use to create spells. The attention I put in creating poetry in general is the exact same I need for spells to feel like they're going to do something. Poetry can be powerful given the right words.
I really love poetry.
