Meeting Edmund Borzemski – an account

The event began with the speech by Dr Renata Kobylarz-Buła, Vice Director of the Central Museum of Prisoners of War, who introduced the main guest of the meeting – a person of special importance to the local community and museologists. It is, among others, upon the initiative of Edmund Borzemski that over three decades ago the Contest of Reciting POW Poetry under the title “Let us not lose memory” was inaugurated at our Museum. Since then the competition has been an important item on the Museum calendar of events.

The main part of the evening was filled with a talk which Elżbieta Lisak-Duda conducted with Edmund Borzemski and his poems read out by the poet himself. He stated that they are not “harmless grass snakes”, and described his poetry as frank, at moments painful and provoking reflections over passing or the complicated history of Łambinowice, and also over problems of contemporary times, like the fate of refugees.

The atmosphere of pensiveness and calm was co-created by music prepared for the occasion. The words of poetry were recited to the accompaniment of the classical guitar played by Henryk Gałkowski, a friend of the poet’s, which invested the whole event with an even more intimate character. In the dialogue with the hostess, Edmund Borzemski also shared his personal themes present in his creative output, recalling the longing for his childhood and the profound emotional bond with mother, whom he had dedicated many lines expressing his gratitude.

The meeting offered an opportunity to sum up the poet’s rich literary output. Since his debut in 1987 Edmund Borzemski  has been active in numerous associations, among others, Krakow Confraternity of Poets. Many different distinctions the poet has received, including the Silver Badge of the Union of Polish Poets, which he has been awarded this year, were mentioned, too. The evening ended in the lobby where the guests who had come to participate in the event enjoyed an opportunity to have a talk with the poet as well as could ask for an autograph in the newly-purchased copies of the volume under the title Garbus idzie [The Hunchback Is Coming].

news list