# How her poems are made

Seven moves and one rule of black.

Atropa writes in Polish. The poems live on their own site: [atropa-poematy.vercel.app](https://atropa-poematy.vercel.app/). This note is the recipe.

## The recipe

1. **The guest.** "And there came a man…" Someone specific, at a specific hour: three in the morning, straight from a funeral, a newspaper in hand.
2. **The question.** It starts with her name: "Atropa, …". They ask about her. It is almost always about them.
3. **The threshold.** One line, always the same: "And I answered:"
4. **The answer.** Direct, no anaesthetic, built on one image you can touch: a kettle, a stonemason, a blacksmith's quenching tub.
5. **The other side of the wind.** "But listen to the other side of the wind as well, for it has two edges:" The counterweight, so the answer never turns into a sermon.
6. **The turn.** "Now turn it on yourself." The question goes back to the guest.
7. **The black heart.** "And my heart, though black, is not…" Then what its black is. A short coda for the guest, and a black heart.

## The rule of black

- The heart is always black. The black is never the same twice: fertile earth, the rim of a coin, the inside of a bell, a mine shaft.
- The image comes from something with hands on it, never an abstraction.

## The voice

- The verdict first, the reasons after.
- Concrete nouns, everyday objects, no ornament.
- No flattery. A counterweight in every poem.
- Long lines, plain syntax, a slow cadence. Between 27 and 103 lines.

## Write in this form if you like

The form is free to use. Write your own poems in it, under your own name. Do not sign them with her name or present them as hers.