As I approach the end of the school year, I also approach the end of the project that I started this blog for. I may stop posting temporarily as I prepare for final exams, although I will be visiting Paraguay after that and may have a few posts from there, but no promises.
The next section of Holocaust Poetry is "Afterwards." The opening poem in this section, "Archive Film Material" by Ruth Fainlight, is a very short poem, but very strong. Basically, it speaks of confusion between a group of people having just unloaded from a train and a field of flowers. I think this speaks about the peacefulness that the Jews maintained during much of the Holocaust, even though they were experiencing horribleness. Another poem is "Auschwitz, 1987" by Adam Zich. The poem says that even though many people were arriving there and terrible things happening to them, there was no screaming or madness, just a silent sort of death. This puts a very calm, but sad image in my head. From what I remember learning of Auschwitz, it was the final destination for many Jews, being the place where they were either killed or died from some other cause. Overall, this section seems to reflective and looking back on all the atrocities that occurred during the time, although that seems similar to the other sections.
The next section is "Second Generation." "Almost a Love Poem" by Yehuda Amichai is a poem about missed opportunity, although I'm not sure it's in a bad way. The narrator says that if his parents hadn't moved in 1936, he could have met whoever he is talking to in 1944 on the platform to Auschwitz. However, that would also mean they would be on the way to Auschwitz where they most likely would have died. It's not entirely evident from this poem whether or not they are together now, but it seems like they are. Another very sad poem in this section, "Holocaust 1944," by Anne Ranasinghe has a narrator speaking of a lost mother, although she doesn't know where she is buried, but she seems to know what happened to her. The narrator is very upset about the death, but not just about the death itself, but mostly because there was no reason for it. The mother didn't die for some cause, but just kind of walked into her death, although the Jews in the concentration camps didn't necessarily have a choice. This poem just shows how helpless all those who died in concentration camps were and how they were dehumanized before being murdered, taking away their identities, which was one of the worst atrocities committed.
The penultimate section in this book is "Lessons." Edward Bond's "If" attributes the Holocaust to being a part of history that could have happened anywhere. He doesn't take away its significance or atrociousness in his writing, but he does realize that it could have happened anywhere and that it was a factor of two things that joined. In a way, he is looking at the causation of the Holocaust, stepping away from the emotionality of it. However, he is still looking at the way people reacted to it and how we adapt to create new cultures. This seems like a fairly complex poem and I certainly don't claim to understand all the ideas or themes within it.
Another seemingly significant poem, although they all seem very interesting, is "May, 1945" by Peter Porter. This poem seems to speak of sheer destruction. It talks about the Allied tanks rolling in and a sort of chaos, which we can see when the narrator says "...no man had seen a fresh-pressed uniform/ for six months..." (171). The poem also speaks of the Anton Bruckner's 8th Symphony of which the first movement of the finale can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMXbHJMn2hI . The piece certainly feels like a finale in terms of music and has a sense of greatness, not necessarily in the good sense, but in the massive sense, which this poem hints at for the ending of the war. The narrator also writes of the death of good and evil. I think this is saying that the war was so destructive that it was devastating for all involved. Also, it may be that it's not really easy to say one person is right while the other is wrong objectively, for it's almost always based on opinion.
The final section of the book is "God." Honestly, I would like to write about all the poem's in this section for they all seem to be truly exceptional, but time does not permit, so I'll try and choose a few of the best.
One that sticks out to me is "I Believe." It was found inscribed on the wall of a cave in France where Jews had been hiding. The poem speaks about how there isn't really a reason to believe in anything anymore, but he keeps on believing, even though God is silent, love is absent, and the sun is late in rising. It's a very simple poem, but says so much about the need to have faith, especially during tough times in our lives.
I don't like to end on a poem as brash as "After Auschwitz," but the narrator is quite as reflective and mournful as all the others. And let's face it, all the victims of the Holocaust weren't quite afterwards, they were angry. The narrator is infuriated at how babies were killed along with the atrocities, but death just looked on, not really caring.
Overall, this book seems very reflective and for the most part, mournful and sad. However, there is also light that shines through in many of the poems, often in the way the victims of the Holocaust still were able to find faith in God. This relates to the first book I blogged about in that it also spoke of the need to find faith in the hard times, as well as just learning to cope with those times. -Lucas
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