Foundations

Leopold Staff

This short poem expresses a belief in the impossible.


I built on the sand
And it tumbled down,
I built on a rock
And it tumbled down.
Now when I build, I shall begin
With the smoke from the chimney.

from Postwar Polish Poetry
(ed Czeslaw Milosz) Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing
Translated from the Polish by Czeslaw Milosz