Poetry
Norwid's Humble Freedom
How a forgotten Polish exile became John Paul II’s moral compass—and why his austere vision of liberty matters for democracy today
Conscience
The Poet Pope: Karol Wojtyła
How a young Pole—orphan, laborer, actor, priest—armed his conscience with verse and learned to defend human freedom from Nazism, Communism, and our age of noise. In brutal times it is easy to think culture is a luxury. Karol Wojtyła (1920–2005) knew better. Before he became John Paul
Poetry
Poetry | Papusza: The Forest’s Witness
A Romani poet’s fragile liberty, carried into Polish letters—and into our present arguments about memory, dignity, and belonging Bronisława Wajs—known as Papusza (“Doll”)—entered Polish literature from the forest edge. A self-taught singer from a traveling kumpania of the Polska Roma, she would become the first widely