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You’ve seen the refugees heading nowhere,
you’ve heard the executioners sing joyfully.
You should praise the mutilated world.
Remember the moments when we were together
in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
Return in thought to the concert where music flared.
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
and leaves eddied over the earth’s scars.
Praise the mutilated world
and the gray feather a thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
and returns.
--
Try to Praise the Mutilated World, Adam Zagajewski (September 24, 2001). Try to Praise the Mutilated World. The New Yorker. Retrieved on September 11, 2011.

 

Adam Zagajewski

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Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!
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