Wednesday, November 09, 2016

Kristallnacht

She said: you have broken it; now you get to see inside.
She said: what you've worked on all your life is worthless.

I said, if what I've worked on all my life is worthless,
high time to break it. There is still a streak of gold 

where the low sill of the eastern sky is cracked;
and if you think I am afraid you do not know me yet.

She said: what have you given to your children but loss?
I said, then at least I have taught them what there is to lose.

She said: what will you give me, to make it all untrue?
I said, nothing will make it all untrue, but I will plant

such strange things in your breast that their singing 
will haunt you in the morning and the night,

till its wickerwork is open, and their song
has spread apart your willow ribs and turned them into light.

8 comments:

Carolee said...

in need of that song, yes. <3

Unknown said...

Dale: I once saw a comic about a post-apocalyptic world. There was a man walking in the rubble, holding a portable TV, looking to plug it in. That is how we felt this morning. We are looking for the guy on TV who will tell us what happened and what to do next. This poem, though - it is not a guy on TV; it is something else - the oldest voice, telling me, not what to do, but how to be rendered. I read it out loud several times. It is a song; the sounds are perfect. I would like to make something of it, with your permission. It suits a woman's voice. I'd like to record it, make a youtube of it, post it. I've never posted anything but this
is medicine. Would you be okay with that? You could be involved or not. Love, Kim

scanlon.kim@gmail.com

Lucy said...

Tears.

(And I'd like to see that video.)

Dale said...

Dear Kim, yes of course, use it anyway you like! I sent you mail.

Rouchswalwe said...

Oh, Dale

Friko said...

What you said in the previous post came true.

I hope that no one in the future will ever ask you “how could you fall for that? how could a whole, democratic, reasonably intelligent (?) nation not see what was happening?
Perhaps it won’t be as bad as the 30-year-Reich ( 4 is shorter than 13) but one man with as much power as the Orange One will have can do a heck of a lot of damage in 4 years.

Kristallnacht? Maybe even that.

Jayne said...

Right to the heart of it. As always. :)

Zhoen said...

Grieving for the generation, ready to sacrifice myself. Hate that it's even a question.