Green: Therefore It Is

You are…you are not…
to believe in you or doubt
whatever you’re made of—
      or even if
            you’re made of nothing
                                       ——you’re green—
                                      from moony glaze
                                      oh winter landscape

                                       just pottery
                                      a little lived-in
                                      and cold——
                                      with ornaments of trees and haze
                                      along the rim
And though I know nothing about you
or the worm of microvoid
         that gnaws you
or about calling you the snow
                                      or the town’s edge
                                      or the bottom
                                      of the lunar night

you may play the loveliest
part of anxiety to me
 
Translated from the Polish

Notes:

Copyright Notice: First published in English by New York Review Books, Translation Copyright © 2024 by Clare Cavanagh and Michał Rusinek.

Audio poem performed by Clare Cavanagh.

Read the Polish-language original, “Zielony: więc jest,” and the translator’s note by Clare Cavanagh.

Source: Poetry (September 2023)