That
Tadeusz Peiper, 1972

That, that worlds inside my walls, that worlds will shriek inside
   my walls,
worlds of cities, of cities like a sea, a sea not of people but of stars,
a sea of song, a song straining the sky, straining it on syllables of
   pride,

through lights new as the springtime lit up by fashion,
and that I don't see the hands to which I opened my doors
and that I don't see the minds into which I lay my worlds
and that, and that, that I am not amongst you.

I adored paths by which a mist of gold enters the city amid
   tarnished rainbows,
I adored days so close that if they had not dusk, she whould have no
   tomorrow,

I adored sated evenings, robust nights, and love which doesn't
   poison you,
I adored pages of unkown beauty
held in hands, shocking young eyes,
I adored the propellers of questions and short answers born on
   the go,
I adored the holy infantophagy of the spirit:
mouthfuls of matter created by man, fruit and food of the spirit,
I adored every creature with which the world is enriched, not
   cluttered,
I adored every greatness unfolding in a yawning lap,
I adored, adored, it didn't change a thing.
The walls remained firm, so the fruits rot.

But, after all, I spoke so clearly that every pear could catch flame!
my sentences, which sometimes were as crooked as a carpenter's
   thumbs,
since, when I crookedly seized the tree of matter, fruits, branches,
   and leaves found their way into my sentences too,
and every stump, touched by me, said as much as it meant.
But for you my act crumbled, like a nut crushed too hard,
but know: the faults in my work are most fragile
when they originate in you.
Your sky, not mine, shrouds me in dread.
To believe my words, it's enough for me to look at the clock,
to think, enough to defend myself,
but to act, I need cities in which a spark feeds on the fat of praise,
and where there are those who would dream what I dream like me.

So I regret
that I don't see the minds for whom I opened a door
and that I don't see the hands in which I lay my worlds
and that, and that, that from my dreams I won't make our dreams,
I, I the mayor, I the mayor of homeless dreams.

- translated from Polish by Alissa Valles