Left to Right, from top row:
Jack Powers
Marc Widershein, Ian Thal, Susie Davidson, Portia Brockway
Peter Desmond, Marc Goldfinger
Local Poets Hold Reading at Holocaust Memorial
by Susie Davidson
Advocate Correspondent
On Monday, April 30, several local poets gathered at the downtown
Holocaust Memorial to note both National Poetry Month and the month
of Yom Hashoah. The event was made even more somber by the recent
tragic deaths of the four Newton children; services for Kayla
Rosenberg were occurring at the same moments.
Each poet related how the Holocaust had touched their
lives. Julie Stone, Deb Priestly, Marc Widershein, Ian Thal and
others spoke of the relatives lost to the Holocaust, and how they
have coped with their losses.
The following poems are selections
from this reading:
The Jewish Gravedigger, Lomazy, Poland 1942
Marc Goldfinger
The heat is oppressive on this day in Lomazy.
I dig this giant pit with others while my wife
and son wait, guarded by Germans on the
athletic field, where we once ran and
played. The Germans have brought
us all out and they stand and walk
about, posturing and posing for
photos. I know they mean to
kill us, but perhaps if I dig
this grave for my friends
and relatives they will
let me and my family
live. Perhaps if I dig
they won't kill us
all. I will pray
as I dig that
God will
not let
this
be.
Numbers
by Ian Thal
I never read the numbers on her arm.
So I ask if the ink of burning black
on skin of burning white could spell a word
in Hebrew that could have spared her and not
the others --?
-- extinguished like ancient stars.
I wonder, standing under the glass towers;
Could the brutal tattoo gunner have known
what protective seal he might have needled?
Or: was survival a drawing of lots,
a slot machine, or a rolling of bones?
And which thought is the more dreadful reading?
The Crystal Lily
Marc Widershien
So many stark beautiful faces
gone into the worlds of light.
Man made art out of the materials:
rockweed, anemones, the herring gull
pink coral, the bark of a tree--
until the jackboot summoned you
to the kingdom of the night.
The child who saw the skeleton in the mirror
still haunts us with a question:
What have you done with my life?
A pond crystalled with lilies
or a swamp maddened by flesh
rotting into rags--it was here
that the madman found his destiny.
The child we were asks us,
What have you done with our lives?
Blackened sun against a full sky
of suns too numerous to count,
too radiant for our eyes--
Jerusalem, grieve a moment
a millenium, generations
of the Diaspora--grieve
then go on.
I AM A JEW
Doug Holder
Do I have a choice?
They changed the name
trading in the awkward scrawl
for the short, spare efficency--
a "JONES"
is now on my back.
This Jew
still peeks through
my body stoops
as if to "daven"
a hint of Yiddish urchin twang--
the monkish bald spot
a Yarmulke
fits perfectly.
At dusk
I down the white bread--
secretly savor
the dark rye
and realize in
the dead of night
that the
blood
doesn't lie.
published in 96inc... Spare Change and Buckle (Buffalo, N.Y.)
6 Million Souls
Susie Davidson
6 Million Souls for the soul of us all,
we of the lucky born after the call.
What kind of black cloud arose at that time?
How could he sway others into his crime?
6 Million Souls for the soul of us all,
the darkest of ages, humanity's fall
Children and innocents slaughtered for what?
6 million visions and dreams hammered shut.
6 Million Souls for the soul of us all,
now etched in stone, fire, memorial hall.
Our own treasured nation ignoring the pain,
Eleanore Roosevelt trying in vain.
6 Million Souls for the soul of us all,
Frozen in bigotry, backs to the wall,
victims of genocide, subhuman plan,
centuries of ignorance, one vile man.
6 Million Souls for the soul of us all,
Survivors and progeny, rise and stand tall!
To make history's errors, all holocausts end
Together we stand and vow NEVER AGAIN.