I'm going to end with just three poems, three newer poems.
These are the querulous children of a writer.
And also, the ones that we tend to lavish our most energy on.
I've been working on a group of poems that deal with--
it's kind of difficult to explain
but deals with the concept of ghetto.
And by that, I mean, starting back way back in 1516
when the serene Republic of Venice
decreed an area for the Jews to live in.
And that was the first appearance
of the word "ghetto."
Through the shtetls, through the concentration
camps, and all the way to the idea of acting ghetto.
But what we have done with that word.
This poem comes from a section, which
deals with concentration camps.
The concentration camps in question
here is Theresienstadt, or Terezin,
which was considered a model concentration camp.
In that, the Red Cross when they came through
to see to check on the humanitarian situation
of concentration camp victims were taken to Terezin.
Because they had a concentration of composers and musicians
there.
And for the day, there was fresh bread,
there were fresh clothing.
And the musicians were forced to give parades,
so that the Red Cross could say, OK, everything's OK.
And then leave usually right afterwards.
That group of musicians was then sent
on to Auschwitz and Dachau.
One of them who survived was a woman
by the name of Alice Herz-Sommer.
She was a pianist and ended up in New York.
And so this is dedicated to her.
"Transit.
This is the house that music built.
Each node of fingertips purchase rung upon rung laddering
across the unspeakable world.
As for those other shrill facades
rigged for a day porticos composed
to soothe regiments of eyes, guilt
reddened, lining the parade route.
Horn flash, woodwind wail.
Well, let them cheer.
I won't speak judgment on the black water passing for coffee,
white water for soup.
We sucked instead each night on Chopin.
Hummed our grief soaked lullabies
to the rapture rippling through.
Let it be said while in the midst of horror,
we fed on beauty.
And that, my love, is what sustained us."