Project Description
Maria Jastrzębska was born in Warsaw, Poland and lives in Brighton. Poet, editor and translator, she co-edited Queer in Brighton (New Writing South 2014) and translated Justyna Bargielska’s The Great Plan B (Smokestack 2017). A new collection The True Story of Cowboy Hat and Ingénue is out this autumn (Liquorice Fish 2018).
June 2016
I’ve heard that cypresses point
folded hands towards the sky
in prayer so thought i”d ask this tree
which stands close to the edge
of the water and is naturally tall
though still young judging by the tuft
of untidy new growth at its peak
which being thinner sways a little
in the wind while the rest of the tree
is upright entirely motionless
under the slow lights of a plane say
and even though I don’t believe
in anything I could explain I thought why
not ask the tree to pray for me for us