Henryk Jasiczek

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Grave of Henryk Jasiczek and his wife in Český Těšín (Czeski Cieszyn). His own epitaph reads: Jeśli dla kogoś jeden mój wiersz tylko promykiem był jesiennym, nie żyłem daremnie. (If for someone a single poem of mine was just an autumn ray, I didn't live uselessly.)

Henryk Jasiczek (2 March 1919 – 8 December 1976) was a Polish journalist, poet, writer, and activist from Zaolzie. He is considered the most important Polish writer from Zaolzie after World War II and one of the most popular local Polish poets.

Jasiczek was born in Kottingbrunn near Vienna in Austria. He spent his childhood in Oldrzychowice near Trzyniec. He studied horticulture in Trzyniec and later in Chrudim. In 1938 he came back to Zaolzie and worked in the Třinec Iron and Steel Works. During World War II he was engaged in Polish leftist resistance, where he worked in the underground press. After the war he joined the Communist Party and became editor-in-chief of Głos Ludu. He remained in this position until 1957. Jasiczek graduated from a journalism school in Prague in 1960. He contributed to Polish children magazines and to Zwrot, a Polish cultural and literary magazine. Jasiczek was also an active member of PZKO, the Polish Cultural and Educational Union, where he directed the literary-artistic section (SLA) from 1945 to 1968.

During the Prague Spring, Jasiczek firmly supported the reformist wing of the Communist Party. His stances and their public manifestations led to his expulsion from public life in May 1970. Jasiczek spent the last years of his life in seclusion. He died on 8 December 1976, in a hospital in Český Těšín. Henryk Jasiczek was exonerated in 1990.

His poetry often focuses on social and national issues, and on regional nature, mostly the Beskid Mountains.

[edit] Works

• Rozmowy z ciszą (1948)
• Pochwała życia (1952)
• Gwiazdy nad Beskidem (1953)
• Obuszkiem ciosane (1955)
• Jaśminowe noce (1959)
• Humoreski beskidzkie (1959)
• Poetyckie pozdrowienia (1961)
• Morze Czarne jest błękitne (1961)
• Krásné jak housle (1962)
• Blizny pamięci (1963)
• Przywiozę ci krokodyla (1965)
• Pokus o smír (1967)
• Baj, baju z mojego kraju (1968)
• Zamyślenie (1969)
• Smuga cienia (1981) (posthumous selection of poetry)
• Jak ten obłok (1990) (posthumous selection of poetry)

[edit] References

• Málková, Iva; and Svatava Urbanová (2001). Literární slovník severní Moravy a Slezska (1945-2000). Olomouc: Votobia. ISBN 80-7198-515-5. 

• Radłowska-Obrusnik, Martyna; and Otylia Toboła (1997). Leksykon PZKO. Czeski Cieszyn: Zarząd Główny PZKO.