Entry into the inside, listening to the middle, sharpening one’s ear with the inner silence. The body becomes a shell; we surround ourselves with it, its sounds; it changes into a secluded space, masking the world. Anna Świrszczyńska wrote: “...I stretch / in my own body / like in a broad, wonderful sleeping bag. / And then I fall, fall / fall to the bottom of happiness”; “When I am alone / I have more space within me. / I sit down comfortably within myself, legs crossed, / and I embark on thinking ...”. 

Skin becomes the frontier; we relinquish it as a separating layer, absorbing the world: “...I drip, / I spin off, I space out, / skin disappears, / I mix with what is not me anymore, / I melt into everything ...” 

Eventually, we gain more space, and give up on closure: “Inside, I am / very, very wide. / As I have no skin / to close me, / to separate me / from what is around.” 

Monika Szpyrka