In his later work, Czuchnowski would not look back upon these experiences too often. It is likely that the poet decided to distance himself from the inhumane cruelty, choosing to affirm life in his writing instead. He lost interest in avant-garde poetics and expressive, first-person narratives. Instead, Czuchnowski started exploring a more impersonal idiom, focusing on descriptions of landscapes and everyday life. Concrete objects, situations and phenomena became more important than abstractions and metaphors. Czuchnowski's poems became longer and more narrative, combining the pains and joys of existence. The poet started to look for balance in ordinary objects and activities, growing less rebellious and more tranquil, less despairing and more accepting.
After Czuchnowski emigrated, he started writing about physical labour in his poetry. The writer was fascinated with Cyprian Kamil Norwid, the Romantic poet who only rose to fame and appreciation long after death and led a poverty-stricken life (as Czuchnowski wrote: 'The life of Norwid, who was the first physical worker in Polish poetry, fascinates me to this day') and Carl Sandburg, whose work he translated and wrote about (the American poet spent his youth working various jobs, including a porter at a barbershop, a bricklayer, farm labourer, and milk wagon driver; he later wrote about exploitation of blue-collar workers). At the end of the war, Czuchnowski moved to England: he arrived at Liverpool to later settle in London. He made a living working a number of blue-collar jobs, including construction work, dishwashing, waiting on tables, and bartending at BBC Radio – where he also addressed his fellow countrymen under the alias 'Marian the shooter'.
He gave readings of his recent work at meetings for Polish refugees and published in the press, sometimes under a pseudonym – if so, mostly as Michał Srebrzak, less frequently as Michalina Borowska. His first post-war book of poems, where he processed his recent experiences, bore the telling title Pożegnanie Jeńca (Prisoner of War's Goodbye, trans. NS). It includes tropes the writer would explore until the end of his career: everyday problems, joys and sorrows, the sensual world.
After 1939, Czuchnowski wrote a total of eight books of poetry, six books of prose, a drama, three publicist brochures, two memoirs, and two longer narrative poems. His body of work includes strictly autobiographical pieces like Cofnięty Czas (Time Reversed, trans. NS) and Szpik Egzystencji (The Marrow of Existence, trans. NS). The latter took Czuchnowski 20 years to write. The literary scholar Janusz Kryszak called it 'an incredibly valuable account of the fate of a contemporary exile', transcending a nation-specific perspective.
Czuchnowski died on 9th January 1991 in St. Leonards-on-Sea. His ashes were scattered over the English Channel.
Selected works (available only in Polish):
Poetry:
- Poranek goryczy (1930, A Bitter Morning)
- Kobiety i konie (1931, Women and Horses)
- Reporter róż (1932, The Rose Reporter)
- Tak (1933, Yes)
- Trudny życiorys (1934, A Difficult Life)
- Powódź i śmierć (1936, Flood and Death)
- Pożegnanie jeńca (1946, Prisoner of War's Goodbye)
- Pola minowe (1951, Minefields)
- Motyl i zakonnica (1953, A nun and a butterfly)
- Poeta (1956, A Poet)
- Szpik egzystencji (published in fragments in 1978, a complete edition was published posthumously in 2017, The Marrow of Existence)
Prose:
- Cynk (1937, Tip-Off)
- Pieniądz (1938, Money)
- Cofnięty czas (1945, Time Reversed)
- Tyfus, teraz słowiki (1951, Tyfus, It's Nightingale Time
- Srebrna ostroga (opowiadania dla dzieci i młodzieży) (1958, The Silver Spur, short stories for children)
- Czarna koronka (1966, Black Lace)
- Żal po ostrogach (1972, The Spur Sorrow)
Drama:
- Fiołki z Warszawy (1954, The Warsaw Violets)
Originally written in Polish by Agnieszka Warnke, translated into English by N.S., August 2021
