Skip to main content Currently Reading Book World: Words of wisdom or wishful thinking? The problem with new books that aim to heal us. Mark Athitakis, The Washington Post April 14, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail Edited by James Crews - - - - - - The Polish poet Adam Zagajewski, who died March 21, wasn't a household name. But there's a decent chance you know one of his poems. And if you lived through 2020, you have a bone-deep understanding of the mood it evoked. In "Try to Praise the Mutilated World," Zagajewski summoned the urge to sound a note of positivity amid death and chaos: "you've seen the refugees going nowhere, / you've heard the executioners sing joyfully. / You should praise the mutilated world." The bittersweet poem circulated widely after 9/11. The New Yorker printed it on the back page of its first issue after the attacks, where it sat, alone, somber as a tombstone but surrounded by enough white space to feel something like hope.