From Ukraine to the Cosmos: Taras Gembik’s Poems of Solitude, Faith, and Becoming

In The Infinite Now, Taras Gembik crafts an intimate meditation on solitude, faith, and the search for meaning. Moving between Ukraine and Poland, these twenty-four poems trace a decade-long journey of self-discovery. Through stark winter evenings and quiet conversations, Gembik’s verses explore ancient and universal questions of existence and identity: the nature of God, the comfort of walls and communion with others, the circular path of memory.

Born in Kamin-Kashyrskyi, Ukraine, Gembik is a poet, curator, performer and activist. From his work with Warsaw’s Museum of Modern Art, where he has created platforms for refugees and people affected by homelessness, to co-founding the Sunflower Solidarity Community Centre in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, his practice is rooted in care and resistance.

Translated from Polish by George Hyde with Małgorzata Sady, Gembik’s words arrive in English with the same raw tenderness they hold in their original form.  Ahead of the collection’s release via HELA PRESS this September, Something Curated publishes two poems from The Infinite Now.

II

I sit on the road, covered with the patches of red,
running away from myself not to reach myself.
My body shrunken with the spasms of winter.
My friend, lay your amulet on my head.
When the crossings cease to cross,
entangling my feet they close in a circle,
and then time will come to say farewell –
Me – thy sheep, You – my faithful shepherd.
Searching for the sun in this wide field,
gazing into the earth as if it sheltered the planets.
Your star seduced me with its stellar reflection.
My planet – I o$er you my bouquet burning out never.
But what does it mean to run when everything reverts?
Does the amulet protect or is it just a reminder of fear?
Is the shepherd your guide or does he leave you alone
at the crossroad?
And the sun –
will we ever find it for real?
Here, in the fields, among the planets and the stars,
I feel love turning in a circle of no beginning and no end,
eternal movement that struggles to answer questions
which I cannot even formulate.

XXIV

Something massive and powerful is growing inside me,
or, on the contrary, something small and fragile.
Like in spring, when there are lots of lilies of the
valley in the forest, it eclipses me internally,
and I blossom.
Again in the flat I search for flowers under the carpet,
in the corners I find the dew of the morning days.
Will I be able to lose myself again,
to find myself in the midst of these moments without
a calendar?
Somewhere between day and night, in a timeless space,
I disappear into the clouds of thoughts I do not
understand.
I try to step out onto an empty road that leads nowhere,
or maybe it’s just a crossroads where my footsteps will
disappear into the sand?
I walk through a space where there are no boundaries,
I lose myself in the sounds carried by the wind.
Do I create this world,
or does it create me?
With every breath I lose control of myself,
I am in this moment, in this infinite now.



The Infinite Now is available to pre-order and will be released on 10 September 2025.



Feature image: Taras Gembik by Stanisław Boniecki