Olive Senior - PEN International

Like you, I never believed in an ideal state.
Just messy, domestic democracy.
Our history’s a digging out from under,
Our politics simple: the ousting of tyrants.
I was schooled, like you, at Adam Mickiewicz.
At seventy, grant me the grace
WORDS ... WRITERS IN PRISON COMMITTEE 50TH ANNIVERSARY
WRITERS IN PRISON COMMITTEE 50 TH ANNIVERSARY
Tamara O’Brien
1986: Adam Michnik
Of that grin they couldn’t wipe from your face.
Essayist, editor and political organiser Adam Michnik was
imprisoned for a total of six years in Communist Poland for his
writings and activism. In 1989 he participated in the creation of
the Soviet Bloc’s first non-Communist government. He lives and
works in Poland. See: ‘Because Writers Speak Their Minds’, the
fiftieth-anniversary campaign of International PEN’s Writers
in Prison Committee; www.internationalpen.org.uk and
http://26-50.tumblr.com.
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WiPC
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