Being Jewish in Lodz

I’m searching for my genealogy

in the city of four cultures

in The Lauder Foundation

I meet the prophets and rabbis

through the holy texts

people are singing and laughing

talking about life and Jerusalem

I’m listening to the stories

taken from Amos Oz and Zeruya Shalev

full of love and suffering

in the shadow of the Holocaust

I read Julian Tuwim — polish-Jewish poet

in the Piotrkowska Street

Jewishness is suspended between two worlds

Polish and Jewish

fragile like the leaf whirling in the wind

on the wall of dreams

About the Author

Anna Banasiak is a poet and literary critic from Lodz, Poland. She studied Polish philology and culture studies at the University of Warsaw. She is the winner of poetry competitions in Berlin, London and Bratislava. Her poems have appeared online via New York, London, Surrey, Australia, Canada, India and South Africa.