I have read that john paul has written poems most of his life dealing with contemplation and the mystical tradition.I would like to know where these can be obtained, are they in print, is there a web site where they may be seen? Many thanks........ef

-- erwin frazier (efra314@aol.com), November 07, 2000

Answers

Response to poems of john paul

+ Hello, Erwin.
I have found only one poem by the pope on the Internet, but I have found the name of a book of his poetry that you may be able to find.

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[Excerpt from Daily Catholic, an online news source]
From 1950 to 1966, Father Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, wrote poetry under the pseudonym "Andrzej Jawien." His literary career covers the time period from four years after his ordination as a priest up to the year before he became a Cardinal. ZENIT permits us to print the following from one of the Pope's early poems, published December 10, 1950, on the theme of the Incarnation.

Her Amazement at her Only Child

Light piercing, gradually, everyday events;
a woman's eyes, hands
used to them since childhood.
Then brightness flared, too huge for simple days,
and hands clasped when the words lost their space.

In that little town, my son, where they knew us together,
you called me mother; but no one had eyes to see
the astounding events as they took place day by day.
Your life became the life of the poor
in your wish to be with them through the work of your hands.

I knew: the light that lingered in ordinary things,
like a spark sheltered under the skin of our days --
the light was you;
it did not come from me.

And I had more of you in that luminous silence
than I had of you as the fruit of my body, my blood.

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I suggest that you go to your local bookstore or library and ask for
"The Place Within: The Poetry of Pope John Paul II" -- translated from the Polish by Jerzy Peterkiewicz. I believe that it may have originally been published under the title, "Easter Vigil and Other Poems."

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), November 08, 2000.