Anna Swir

Anna Swir (1909-1984) (Świrszczyńska) was born in Warsaw, Poland, to an artistic though impoverished family. In the 1930s she worked for a teachers’ association, served as an editor, and began publishing poetry. Swir joined the Resistance during World War II and worked as a military nurse during the Warsaw Uprising; at one point she came within an hour of being executed before she was spared. 

There is a Light in Me

Whether in daytime or in nighttime

I always carry inside

a light.

In the middle of noise and turmoil

I carry silence.

Always, 

I carry light and silence.

— Anna Swir