ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Philip Styrt is an assistant professor of English at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, IA. His creative and critical work focuses on traditional forms of poetry and drama. His poetry has appeared in Sliced Bread and The Oriel College Record.
Poets Resist
Edited by Logan February
July 24, 2019
Edited by Logan February
July 24, 2019
Concentration Camps
My family wasn’t murdered in the camps.
They were gunned down by einsatzgruppen though,
With no one left to light the yartzeit lamps
Or say the kaddish. Our tears overflow
And what is worst is, we no longer know
Who we ought to remember. Twelve short years —
Six million dead. And in the afterglow
The whole world said, in answer to our tears,
“Never again.” Yet no one interferes
As hatred cages children with the claim
We ought to fear them. And thus “never” nears
While all we argue over is its name.
What use is memory, or Godwin’s Law,
If we can’t recognize the signs they saw?
This poem is a direct response as a Jew to the current immigration and detention system in the US. It takes the form of a sonnet, because I believe there is an affirmative value to reclaiming and using traditional, conservative verse forms to oppose those who claim tradition and conservative values and yet betray them at every turn.
Poets Resist is published by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
