29 June 2013 RK'70 - Day Three

Poetry is travel and is in travel, and yesterday's evening became a time of rest for it. The guests who visited Ryszard Krynicki’s birthday evening – outstanding poets representing various generations and various poetic styles, including: Marcin Baran, Wojciech Bonowicz, Jerzy Kronhold, Ryszard Krynicki, Ewa Lipska, Bronisław Maj, Leszek Aleksander Moczulski, Marcin Sendecki, Krzysztof Siwczyk, Andrzej Sosnowski, Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki and Adam Zagajewski – read Krynicki's poems as well as their own poems (Krynicki did not read his poems, but only quoted a few texts from his personal anthology of the Polish poetry of the 20th century), giving the audience a time for reflection and a moment of respite from everyday life. But Ryszard Krynicki’s anniversary was celebrated not only with poetry – Tadeusz Trzmiel, Vice-Mayor of the City of Krakow, who visited yesterday’s event, decorated the poet with the Honoris Gratia award, which is granted by the Mayor of the City of Krakow to persons with distinguished services to the city. Obviously, there was also a birthday cake on the banquet held in honour of the poet.

We can conclude our report on the last day only with a summary of the entire Jubilee of Ryszard Krynicki. To this end, we will quote the words of Paweł Próchniak, one of the originators of the event: 'These were very intense three days; I think that they were celebrated deeply, but with joy. The poetry and personality of Ryszard Krynicki that was in the centre of this celebration is a good foundation for this kind of lively, deep and moving thought, for something that I would call joy – the joy of existence, the joy of being in the world, the joy towards other people; I think this is very rare and very valuable. That was our aim, and we made it'.

Pic. Max Bruno Pflegel