Jan 2018
Lives ripped up and torn apart
Men this way and women that.
Children learning to regard starvation as normal.
And a minute for each of the victims makes
Eleven and a half years' silence.
Skull-like faces starved of food,
Starved of love, starved of light.
Bones like cartoon skeletons
Covered with a sort of skin, make
Eleven and a half years' silence.
Man's inhumanity to man,
Didn't begin with ******, nor end
It rises up and gets defeated,
Though war's a poor answer for any question - as is
Eleven and a half years' silence.
The best memorial, the best commemoration
Is not silence but shouting to be heard.
Be strong, stand up for right, for others,
For love, for compassion. Better by far than
Eleven and a half years' silence.
Fee Berry 28.1.18
Men this way and women that.
Children learning to regard starvation as normal.
And a minute for each of the victims makes
Eleven and a half years' silence.
Skull-like faces starved of food,
Starved of love, starved of light.
Bones like cartoon skeletons
Covered with a sort of skin, make
Eleven and a half years' silence.
Man's inhumanity to man,
Didn't begin with ******, nor end
It rises up and gets defeated,
Though war's a poor answer for any question - as is
Eleven and a half years' silence.
The best memorial, the best commemoration
Is not silence but shouting to be heard.
Be strong, stand up for right, for others,
For love, for compassion. Better by far than
Eleven and a half years' silence.
Fee Berry 28.1.18
It was the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on the day before I wrote the poem, which arose when someone tweeted that a minutes silence for each of the victims of the holocaust would result in eleven and a half years' silence. The words had a pace and meaning which drove the poem.
