Diamond Insights Diamond Insights

  • Index
  • About
  • Essays
  • Profiles
  • The Holocaust Poems
  • The Dark Lady Reflections
  • The Story of Sol
  • Stepping Stones to Freedom
  • Zaundrew and His Brother Simeon
  • The Serpent's Bite
  • Cupid's Fall
  • Heavens Farthest Gate
  • Music From Another Time
  • Future Sight
  • Because One Listened
  • Alice Chronicles
  • Divine Promiscuity
  • Paranomasia
  • Shame
  • Sun and Moon
  • A Farewell
  • What is this Love
  • Thoughts on Sycophancy
  • The Lighthouse
  • Beauty Beast
  • Birth Day
  • Infinity Mind
  • Man Woman
  • Postulates of a New Physics
  • The Cylinder
  • Joe - A Story of Enlightenment
  • Margie and Michael
  • Father Death
  • Thesis
  • If I Had a Million
  • I am a Sea Dog
  • The Inner Sanction
  • Are You Listening
  • PDQ
  • A Review - May 14 - 2014
  • In the Defense of the Liberal Arts
  • History of Writing - Part One
  • History of Writing - The Puppet Story
  • When the Dream Becomes Your Limit
  • A Breakthrough in Video Music Performance
  • James McCracken Sings Birthday of a King
  • Highfield Diaries
  • The Pursuit of Mastery
  • Metaphysics of Identity
  • Consciousness and Business
  • Stockhuasen in New York
  • The Birth of Infinity
  • Quantum
  • Dr. Thomas Sudhof
  • Dr. Harvey Brem
  • Anthony and Jeanette Senerchia
  • My Friend Sal
  • Threnody
  • Unloved Thoughts
  • Black Snow
  • Ice Angels
  • The Skies of Thunder Moon
  • Index
  • About
  • Essays
    • Are You Listening
    • PDQ
    • A Review - May 14 - 2014
    • In the Defense of the Liberal Arts
    • History of Writing - Part One
    • History of Writing - The Puppet Story
    • When the Dream Becomes Your Limit
    • A Breakthrough in Video Music Performance
    • James McCracken Sings Birthday of a King
    • Highfield Diaries
    • The Pursuit of Mastery
    • Metaphysics of Identity
    • Consciousness and Business
    • Stockhuasen in New York
    • The Birth of Infinity
    • Quantum
  • Profiles
    • Dr. Thomas Sudhof
    • Dr. Harvey Brem
    • Anthony and Jeanette Senerchia
    • My Friend Sal
  • The Holocaust Poems
    • Threnody
    • Unloved Thoughts
    • Black Snow
    • Ice Angels
    • The Skies of Thunder Moon
  • The Dark Lady Reflections
  • The Story of Sol
  • Stepping Stones to Freedom
  • Zaundrew and His Brother Simeon
  • The Serpent's Bite
  • Cupid's Fall
  • Heavens Farthest Gate
  • Music From Another Time
  • Future Sight
  • Because One Listened
  • Alice Chronicles
  • Divine Promiscuity
  • Paranomasia
  • Shame
  • Sun and Moon
  • A Farewell
  • What is this Love
  • Thoughts on Sycophancy
  • The Lighthouse
  • Beauty Beast
  • Birth Day
  • Infinity Mind
  • Man Woman
  • Postulates of a New Physics
  • The Cylinder
  • Joe - A Story of Enlightenment
  • Margie and Michael
  • Father Death
  • Thesis
  • If I Had a Million
  • I am a Sea Dog
  • The Inner Sanction
THRENODY  
from The Holocaust Poems

How shall you remember me?

As I died... 
          A bony hand reaching for one last friend 
                as we are marched 
                      to the final chambers of Buchenwald...
Or as one who once laughed
          Falling to the sand  
                Chasing seagulls on a summer day... 
                      And who later learned to shed a tear for such a                                 long lost love.

And how shall I be known?

As one who perished 
          with worms eating at pussed rimmed sores,
                caught in the spreading net of the pox plague
                      too weak to crawl to a fouled dying stream for water.
Or one who felt the caress of a lovers hand on my breast?
          Who kissed the wind    
                and knew what it was to ride the wings of an eagle 
                     and watch the miracle of life and birth.

And how do you see me? 

As one who knew 
         what it was to nurse a baby with my nipple's milk, 
               to watch a son grow strong, 
                     and learn to laugh with each stumbling step overcome, 

Or is it through
          the memory of incineration 
                 at Hiroshima's hellish breath?

And me...  

Do you know me for my love of poetry, 
          of words that defy the rhymes of reasoned thought 
                and yearn for the freedom of transcendent verse. 
Or am I known for the nightmare of my sleep
         as cold winds shoot through cracked walls    
                and mortars rain from mountain crests     
                      and my children die in crumbling unfed 
                             hospital beds.

And how will I be remembered?

For this threnody of death 
           or for my song of life?