say it like kept · it means whisper
A whisper worth keeping.
Wiersze na każdą okazję · po polsku i po angielsku
Szept writes poems for the moments people keep close: weddings and vows, anniversaries and birthdays, new homes, new little lives, thank-yous, farewells and the quiet days that deserve remembering too.
Every piece is written by one poet's own hand and heart, warm and honest with a little playful spark, in English, in Polish, or in both languages holding hands. These verses are made to live on paper, inside vow books, cards, framed prints and letterpress keepsakes that stay in families for years.
Ready poems for the occasions we all share, weddings and anniversaries, birthdays, new babies, new homes, thank-yous and goodbyes, gently personalised with your names and your dates.
From the collection: Sentier · Etoiles · Kew · Magnolia · Feuille
Written from inside your own story, how you met, the jokes only your family shares, the feeling of an ordinary Sunday together. One poem, one person or one couple, never repeated.
Written from four details: a broken lift, a bag of oranges, two jokes and the ninth of March
Poems in the mother tongue, for Polish families and for those who live between two languages. Every bespoke piece can be written in Polish, in English, or as a mirrored pair of both.
Written for no occasion at all, which is sometimes the very best reason
Slower and soulful poems for prints, journals and interiors, words to live beside and not only to send.
Available as poem prints, a natural companion to visual art
If the moment matters to you, it can be written. These are the ones people ask for most.
Ceremony readings, vow books, invitation verse
Your years told back to you, one line at a time
From the first to the ninetieth, warm and never generic
A poem for a baby, to be kept for the whole life
The first door, the first key, the first evening
For the people who never get told properly
Retirements, goodbyes, and words for remembering
Some poems exist simply because someone is loved
The name means whisper.
Szept is a small poetry studio, which is a generous way of saying it is one poet, a desk, and a great deal of tea. My name is Paulina. I was born in Poland and I write in Sheffield, which means I have spent my whole adult life between two languages and have come to love what happens in the space between them.
I chose the word szept because it is exactly what a good poem does. It does not shout at a room. It leans in close and says the true thing quietly, and then the person carries it around for years afterwards. That is what I want every commission to be, something small enough to fold into a pocket and important enough to keep in a drawer forever.
My poems rhyme, they are warm, and they usually have a little joke hiding somewhere near the tender part, because that is how real affection sounds when people speak it out loud. I write them by hand and by heart, one at a time, never reusing a piece written for somebody else.
And because I write in Polish as well as English, I can do something rather rare: a poem that says the same beautiful thing twice, once for each side of a family, so that nobody at the table is left translating.
From your story to a poem you can hold in your hands.
A short questionnaire or a relaxed chat, how you met, what makes you laugh, the little details nobody else would know. In English, in Polish, or both.
You receive the first version within days and we refine it together until every line sounds like you. One round of changes is always included.
Your poem arrives beautifully set and ready for a card, a vow book, a frame or your stationer, or printed through one of Szept's studio partners.
Szept partners with fine art and letterpress studios to offer their couples something almost nobody else can: a poem written just for them, printed by you. The poem is written here, you press it, and we share each commission, with no cost and no risk on your side. Bilingual Polish and English pieces are available for diaspora and destination weddings.
Ask for a free sample poemTell me who it is for and what the moment is. There is no obligation in asking, and I answer every message myself.