‘My-ness’
My-ness
“My parents, my husband, my brother, my sister.”
Having breakfast in the cafeteria, I listen.
Women’s voices rustle and fulfill themselves
In a ritual we clearly need.
Out of the corner of my eye I watch their moving lips
And feel such sweetness, being here on earth,
One more moment, together, here on earth,
To celebrate our little my-ness.
Czeslaw Milosz
(New and Collected Poems: 1931-2001. Copyright © 1988,1991,1995, 2001 by Czeslaw Milosz Royalites, Inc. ISBN 978-0-06-051448-8)
Some thoughts on this poem
The poetry of Czeslaw Milosz is fairly new to me, and leaves me wondering how I could have missed him for so long. What strikes me in this poem is the here-ness and now-ness of the moment that has brought him the sense of feeling joy in being alive on earth. In this cafeteria. On this certain day. With these particular people. To experience this, here, now and be present to it. I wonder if this isn’t a vision that all good poetry beckons us with: to experience the moments of our lives as they come, wherever we are. Essentially, to discover myself in discovering the others sitting around me in the cafeterias of my life.
Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004) was born in Lithuania to Polish parents who had temporarily moved there to escape political turmoil in their native Poland. During WW II he was involved with the Polish Resistance movement in Warsaw, and after the post-war period escaped from an oppressive communist regime to Paris, in 1951. He eventually moved to the US in 1960 where he was offered a professorship at the University of California at Berkeley. He received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1980. Although Czeslaw Milosz writes in his native Polish language, he also translates his own poetry into English.
Robert, Jan 2020
Photo by Dogancan Ozturan on Unsplash
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Beautiful poem…and great thought, Robert! It reminds us of that we all need growth and exercise in seeing beauty and meaning in everyday life observations and experiences we make. To really see is an art!
Those words and the noticing they express are so clear, fundamental, and powerfully expressive in a way that feels so basically human. Thanks for sharing this. I want to check out Czeslaw Milosz’s work more than ever–I’ve come across his name many times but never read him.
In such few lines Milosz is able to bring to mind so many small but precious cafeteria “my-ness” moments, This idea of our collective “my-ness” gives words to experiences and feelings difficult to capture with words. Thank you for sharing this jewel and this writer with us, Robert!
What a joyful reminder of the small moments of beauty a day gives. Once again I am reminded how easy it is to be occupied and how intentional the art of observing is. Thanks Robert.
A beautiful little poem that captures the essence of being present, in the moment, embracing the gift of now and all that is part of the now. Especially that human part, the collective that we are entwined with, that helps define us….using our very senses to take in the beauty of life around us. Thank you!