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Heavy rain is falling from the sky in Irish Galway. I come back on the bike from my work and found the package waiting for me behind the blue door. I already know what it is. Everything goes very fast from Aleksandrów Kujawski. Because these letters are driven by the passion of the founder of the Literary Festival in Łazieniec Biała Lokomotywa (White Locomotive) and my friend, Daria Danuta Lisiecka. For the 20th anniversary of the Polish National Poets Meetings, Daria has prepared a beautiful album.
Blue meadow and white glow of the locomotive on the cover. I open the book and I land in the real world of meeting people who come to this event every year, meetings with poems, songs, the fragrance of the meadow in front of the poet Edward Stachura’s house, sandwiches eaten during the breaks.
When I look at the pictures in the album, I feel like I am holding a book about my poetic home. Because the White Locomotive has become a port for so many people who love poetry and come from different parts of Poland and Europe. We always want to come back there, if not with our body, then at least with our spirit, with new poems that we hang on the net during the special happening.
Because the White Locomotive brings us each time to a full life with everything that is fleeting around us, dewy grass, the taste of wild apples picked straight from a tree, with all emotions, longings that turn into lines of poems read in a slam or theater. The author’s song disarms the inner walls and hugs fears.
Autumn ritual
At this festival, I always feel as if I am sitting by the fire (although I am sitting in the room), close to others, in openness, curiosity, and frankly joy. The literary festival in Łazieniec has become an annual ritual for us at the beginning of autumn. It is like an extension of summer and everything that we would like to keep with us for the longest time. And this is what happens during this event, it leaves with us by train, wanders the streets of various places, and attracts` others along the way.
There is a room for everone
Under the great roof of the sky
Go out on the roads
Accross the meadows and stolons
Down the pastures and sheep-run
In the glare of the sun in the shadow of the clouds
Edward Stachura “Introit”
Daria included a lot of interesting content in the album: interviews, statements of the participants, there is also a note about Stachura and his mother, whom Daria knew personally. Apparently, Mrs. Jadwiga Stachura brewed the best tea in the world in a kettle that you can still find in a small house in Łazieniec. There is even a map at the end of the book on how to get to Łazieniec from Aleksandrów Kujawski.
Poetic railroads
Well, this amazing, cameral event does not end after three days but begins to live in everyone who has ever appeared there. Often, new projects are born right after the festival because people can find friendship. For two years now, you can watch White Locomotive online and you can meet a real person virtually like I met Małgorzata Wątor and now I am waiting for when we will finally see each other in real life. Because unceremoniousness and authenticity are common features of people who come to the Literary Festival in Łazieniec. Check it out, I recommend this event to you with all my heart.
