Sunday, March 1, 2009

Dresden - 13th February, 1945

Several days before the anniversary of the bombing
of Dresden, I was given this LINK and a photocopy
of the article. I found it extremely difficult to read and
I still have not read every single word. But what
I did read gave me the following poem. Mankind as
a collective has a lot to answer for. A harsh statement,
but one I think is true nonetheless.



birds of war hover
on metal wings
weighed down with
the unspeakable

incendiary eggs; one
for every two fragile
targets

Dresden doll, face
baked crystalline on the
wall; umbilicus sailed
through a window,
birth died in the fall

filigree lace tattered
porcelain slivers
sliced open ruby lips
never ever to meet
in a kiss

from inside the
Church on the Hill
'V' for Victory
shouted, one man's
thrill--revenge

decimate Dresden's lace




Love,

5 comments:

  1. Wow.
    I'm ashamed to say I've never heard of the Dresden bombing, and I just got done teaching a unit on The Diary of Anne Frank. How could I have never heard of this?
    Very powerful poem.
    I'm just reeling right now.

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  2. I remember learning about Dresden in high school and being completely horrified by the pictures and accounts. It's amazing how you summed up those feelings in this poem.

    And you're right, mankind has a lot to answer for.

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  3. Very vivid, Eaton.

    My dh, Mr. Al, is big on history, so I have heard of the bombing, but when he tries to describe it he tends to get wide eyes and shake his head, unable to come up with the words for it. Then he says some generality about how unnecessary it was, and what a travesty.

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  4. I have never heard of the Dresden bombing..but now I am going to find out about it...
    I definately agree that mankind has a lot to answer for...

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  5. There were more deaths in the Dresden bombing than Hiroshima if that puts any perspective on it.

    The most telling quote I've ever heard on the madness of human history came -- ironically -- from Josef Stalin: "The death of one is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic."

    I think the mind has a gating mechanism for horror and once that threshold is crossed, we simply can't process any more.

    Thanks for this.

    ReplyDelete

Falling Water by Frank Lloyd Wright

Falling Water by Frank Lloyd Wright
click on the photo for link

Flat Stanley near Castlemaine, Victoria.