WEBVTT

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I'm going to end with just
three poems, three newer poems.

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These are the querulous
children of a writer.

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And also, the ones that we tend
to lavish our most energy on.

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I've been working on a group
of poems that deal with--

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it's kind of
difficult to explain

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but deals with the
concept of ghetto.

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And by that, I mean, starting
back way back in 1516

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when the serene
Republic of Venice

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decreed an area for
the Jews to live in.

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And that was the
first appearance

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of the word "ghetto."

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Through the shtetls,
through the concentration

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camps, and all the way to
the idea of acting ghetto.

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But what we have
done with that word.

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This poem comes from
a section, which

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deals with concentration camps.

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The concentration
camps in question

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here is Theresienstadt,
or Terezin,

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which was considered a
model concentration camp.

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In that, the Red Cross
when they came through

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to see to check on the
humanitarian situation

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of concentration camp victims
were taken to Terezin.

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Because they had a concentration
of composers and musicians

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there.

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And for the day,
there was fresh bread,

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there were fresh clothing.

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And the musicians were
forced to give parades,

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so that the Red Cross could
say, OK, everything's OK.

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And then leave usually
right afterwards.

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That group of
musicians was then sent

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on to Auschwitz and Dachau.

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One of them who
survived was a woman

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by the name of
Alice Herz-Sommer.

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She was a pianist and
ended up in New York.

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And so this is dedicated to her.

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"Transit.

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This is the house
that music built.

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Each node of fingertips purchase
rung upon rung laddering

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across the unspeakable world.

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As for those other
shrill facades

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rigged for a day
porticos composed

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to soothe regiments
of eyes, guilt

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reddened, lining
the parade route.

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Horn flash, woodwind wail.

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Well, let them cheer.

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I won't speak judgment on the
black water passing for coffee,

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white water for soup.

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We sucked instead
each night on Chopin.

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Hummed our grief
soaked lullabies

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to the rapture rippling through.

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Let it be said while
in the midst of horror,

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we fed on beauty.

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And that, my love, is
what sustained us."