Possibilities

No sleep roughly 24 hours, but still tried to smile when taking this photo. :)


Neues Museum, Berlin


Recently I read some Wislawa Szymborska's poems.
I'm not an expert in knowing poetic theorem,
but somehow I am easily moved by her poetry.

The poem, Possibilities, is one of my favorite.
Hope to share it with you. :)

*******************************
Possibilities

I prefer movies.

I prefer cats.

I prefer the oaks along the Warta.

I prefer Dickens to Dostoyevsky.

I prefer myself liking people
to myself loving mankind.

I prefer keeping a needle and thread on hand, just in case.

I prefer the color green.

I prefer not to maintain
that reason is to blame for everything.

I prefer exceptions.

I prefer to leave early.

I prefer talking to doctors about something else.

I prefer the old fine-lined illustrations.

I prefer the absurdity of writing poems
to the absurdity of not writing poems.

I prefer, where love's concerned, nonspecific anniversaries
that can be celebrated every day.

I prefer moralists
who promise me nothing.

I prefer cunning kindness to the over-trustful kind.

I prefer the earth in civvies.

I prefer conquered to conquering countries.

I prefer having some reservations.

I prefer the hell of chaos to the hell of order.

I prefer Grimms' fairy tales to the newspapers' front pages.

I prefer leaves without flowers to flowers without leaves.

I prefer dogs with uncropped tails.

I prefer light eyes, since mine are dark.

I prefer desk drawers.

I prefer many things that I haven't mentioned here
to many things I've also left unsaid.

I prefer zeroes on the loose
to those lined up behind a cipher.

I prefer the time of insects to the time of stars.

I prefer to knock on wood.

I prefer not to ask how much longer and when.

I prefer keeping in mind even the possibility
that existence has its own reason for being.


- Wislawa Szymborska

extracted from http://www.poetseers.org/nobel_prize_for_literature/wislawa_szymborska/library/possibilities