Kingdoms
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Kingdoms
I like to dream of those dead kingdoms.
Su Tung P'o
I like to dream of those dead kingdoms where brass gleams and sings and upright fires blaze on hilltops, where someone's love dwells. One late afternoon in November, I take the commuter train coming home from a long walk; around me tired businessmen and a sad old lady hugging a dachshund. The conductor, alas, is a very clumsy shaman. Life strides above us like Gulliver and laughs loudly and cries.
Adam Zagajewski, who was born in Poland, is the author of numerous books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction prose. His books of poems and essays in English-language include Tremor (1985), Canvas (1991) Mysticism for Beginners (1997), Without End (2000), Solidarity, Solitude (1990), Two Cities (1995), Another Beauty (2000), and A Defense of Ardor (2004). Much of his work has also been translated from Polish to German, Swedish, and French. He teaches in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston.
