Who among us is unfamiliar with the holocaust, forever etched in history and to some, their memory?
In Duane Vorhees’s introductory poem from his latest work Between Holocausts: “A Mind Rewinds” Vorhees captures something indescribable, when he writes:
My psyche is littered with living Its/ Disregarded superegos still whine/ Od and Ob hiss between young green vines/Bony hilltops strain to catch day’s first light/ their bloodguilt insufficiently contrite/My psyche is littered with living Its…” Perhaps he is describing sephardic warriors of yore and in extant …who were “disregarded” [and[ deemed “insufficient”.
I found the book’s neurodivergent style instructive, creative, intuitive, alarming and haunting….as it grapples with a subject matter such as the holocaust with a sort of classic poetic indirectness that reads like a literary puzzle with a cartage of sometimes obscure literary symbolisms and references that compels further investigation.
Take the use of “midnight”, which in literature can symbolize death, despair, hope, a place between life and death. For example in poetic forefather Walt Whitman’s poem “A Clear Midnight” midnight represents death as a peaceful ending of the day. Whereas in contemporary Chinese literature, midnight can suggest despair OR hope, emblematizing the emotional incongruity in the culture.
The repetitious nature of the poems make for a particularly eerie experience, like an ominous cautionary tale emanated from the sagacious tongue of someone GRAND..whether grandfather or grandmother, you want to lean forward in attention and anticipation. The author achieves preternatural phenomena in the way that he presents his writings, which I found quite refreshing.
Scholastic philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas of Sicily– who synthesized Christian theology with Aristotelian philosophy, contended that the “supernatural” comprised of “God’s unmediated actions” while the “natural” is “what happens always or most of the time” and the “preternatural” is “what happens rarely, but nonetheless by the agency of created beings…”
In “WHAT I DID LEARN”, Vorhees goes full throttle for the macabre and melancholy in this “preternatural” self-revelatory poem. I say “preternatural” because having been voraciously reading early 20th century poetry like Robert Frost and E.E. Cummings since the 8th grade, I have never come across a Vorhees-like style and I consider myself as having been around the “poetic block” a few times…in WHAT I DID LEARN, he writes:
“My music group’s hit singles/stopped so many songs ago/I’ve learned my shakes and wrinkles and still I wait for wisdom…”
As I read these words I felt like an exposed viscera on legs, figuratively inside/out vibes…for I too am learning “my shakes and wrinkles” yet still “I wait” to acquire the wisdom that I presumed would come with the drudging accumulation of years.
LIke Frost, Vorhees investigates complex social and philosophical themes with mastery but with a poignant bout of relatable and humbled vulnerability which is the plight and euphoria, conundrum and exaltation of any type of artist.
Could Vorhees be described as an itinerant troubadour, who in the middle ages were the shining knights of poetry?
Troubadour from an old Occitan (an ancient province that stretched from south of France from east to west) word meaning “to compose”? Perhaps. Or maybe he’s just a guy with something to say about some things that matter to him and he conceivably hopes that they matter to you as well.
The poems read like a heuristic and Socratic exercise replete with mythical biblical and literary symbolisms.
While we’re at it, why not add Mimetic Theory to the list? This terminology is described as a theory of human behavior and culture that explains how human desire and imitation lead to conflict and violence:
What better way to exemplify the ideologies of mimetic desire-conflict- and scapegoating than the horrific and fugly HOLOCAUST!
Here is a synopsis of Mimetic Theory, it’s inception and evolution:
Origin The theory was developed by French philosopher, literary critic, and anthropologist René Girard (1923–2015).
Process Mimetic theory moves through four stages:
Mimetic desire: People imitate others and want what other people want.
Conflict: People compete for the same goods, leading to conflict.
Scapegoating: A group singles out an individual or problem as the source of their problems and violently expels or eliminates them.
Cover-up: Human culture springs up around the scapegoating mechanism to cover up the founding murder.
Throughout history, scapegoating has been the instigator of many atrocities. From the inception of slavery, to Adolf Hitler’s holocaust exterminating millions of Jewish people and what he considered “undesirable” people to the Chinese Exclusion Act of the late 19th century and now Haitian immigrants, both having been branded as “dog and cat eaters” which makes it easier to draft laws against them for you must dehumanize to make it easier to vaporize them from the planet, right?
Although the book is replete with an infelicitous subject matter, after reading it, your resistance to transfiguration could conceivably be an exercise in futility; you will emerge from the chrysalis of self-consciousness to a wise sage having been dug up from the darkness of an egregious past and exposed to ebb and flow of a reformatory present through poetic light and historical literary erudition.
Nothing is nugatory, every word, every nuance seems carefully selected. Vorhees is serving fluid paradoxical wordplay and intrigue, cajoling the reader to read on and hopefully decode the cleverly coded script.
Vorhees writes with ingenuity, authenticity and authority. A MUST read for anyone willing to trek a trip down a dark path with a promise of light ahead. The stuff of LIFE! A familiar trope done in an unfamiliar way…a literary TRIUMPH!
Duane Vorhees’ title Between Holocausts will come out later this fall from Hog Press.
Duane Vorhees is an American poet in Thailand. He is the author of THE MANY LOVES OF DUANE VORHEES, HEAVEN, GIFT: GOD RUNS THROUGH ALL THESE ROOMS, MEMORIES ARE LINKED LIKE OASES, A CONSIDERABLE SHARE OF FELICITY, and THE WOMB AND THE BRAIN. Born in Farmersville, Ohio, USA, he graduated from Bowling Green State University with a doctorate in American Culture Studies. He has taught at Seoul National University, Korea University, and the Asian Division of the University of Maryland University College (now the University of Maryland Global Campus).
Jacques Fleury
Jacques Fleury is a Boston Globe featured Haitian-American Poet, Educator, Author of four books and literary arts student at Harvard University online. His latest publication “You Are Enough: The Journey to Accepting Your Authentic Self” & other titles are available at all Boston Public Libraries, the University of Massachusetts Healey Library, University of Wyoming, Askews and Holts Library Services in the United Kingdom, The Harvard Book Store, The Grolier Poetry Bookshop, amazon etc… He has been published in prestigious publications such as Muddy River Poetry Review, the Cornell University Press anthology Class Lives: Stories from Our Economic Divide, Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene among others…Visit him at: http://www.authorsden.com/jacquesfleury.
LIVING DEAD TAPESTRY
Bosnian mothers have been giving birth to daughters for generations
which keep away from the lustful and smelly bodies of the enemy.
And they give birth to daughters,
who are thrown away into the swollen waters,
due to fear from the maddened eyes of their fathers.
So again during a lunar eclipse,
in the deepest layers of the night Bosnian daughters,
on the banks of Bukovica,
they weave a handkerchief for a loved one,
while prayers are boiling from the lips:
The stars will write a better destiny for us then when we leave this world.
Azemina Krehić was born on October 14, 1992 in Metković, Republic of Croatia. Winner of several international awards for poetry, including: Award of university professors in Trieste, 2019.,„Mak Dizdar“ award, 2020. Award of the Publishing Foundation of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2021. „Fra Martin Nedić“ Award, 2022. She is represented in several international anthologies of poetry.
Dance the Dance Slowly: What a Dying Teen Can Teach Us about Living
[Excerpt from Fleury’s book: “You Are Enough: The Journey to Accepting Your Authentic Self” originally published in Spare Change News]
“Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round? /Or listened to the rain slapping on the ground? /Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight? /Or gazed at the sun into the fading night? /You better slow down. /Don’t dance so fast/Time is short/The music won’t last.” So begins the hopeful and emotional offering of an anonymous teenager dying of cancer in a New York hospital with an estimated six months to live.
We have all heard the clichéd phrases “Slow down, life is short” or “Take the time to look around and smell the roses”, but in this case the inherent meaning has been further enhanced by the unpredictable behavior of cancer and the non-committal allotment of time. I too have been exposed to this calamity imposed on humanity known as the “C” word.
Before re-discovering my pressing need to write as a profession, I worked as a health care professional for about ten years. Both fortunately and unfortunately, my last three years was working at the Chilton House, a hospice residence in Cambridge. I say fortunately, because it was my most meaningful learning experience and unfortunately because it was by far the hardest.
For those of you who do not know what a hospice is, it is a place for the terminally ill to make their final exit with peace, dignity and even harmony. But essentially, it is also much more than that. It is also a place for both families and patients respectively to find closure, forgiveness, joy (yes, even joy) and enlightenment.
There are five stages anyone who is dying or experiencing a major loss goes through according to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, author of “On Death and Dying”. The Five Stages of Grief are:
1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance
It is written that “Kübler-Ross originally applied these stages to any form of catastrophic personal loss (job, income, freedom). This also includes the death of a loved one, divorce, drug addiction, or infertility. Kübler-Ross also claimed these steps do not necessarily come in the order noted above, nor are all steps experienced by all patients, though she stated a person will always experience at least two.”
The stage that the dying teen is most likely at the “acceptance” stage. By writing the poem, it is apparent to me that the dying teen is making peace with her condition and is “preparing” for her untimely departure. But her message of hope goes beyond the grave.
I will print her poem in its entirety at the end of this article. But before I do, I am compelled to tell you what I learned in my years as a hospice nurse. The midnight hour had just landed, perched like a crow upon the hospice house comely garden (the crow is said to be a symbol of death).
One of my patients was dying. He was a white professor from Harvard University. Of all the people he knew, I was the only one there, a “black kid” as he said, holding his hands to the end.
And he turned to me and said: “Listen kid. In life, status, education and money are not what matters. What matters is what was true and truly felt and how we treated one another.” After which he died one hour later.
Consequently, this teenager’s compassionate legacy to humanity is the following poem, which makes me feel that we should be kind to each other while we still can because she is embracing us with kindness even as she anticipates taking her final breath. Just like her poem dictates, please read it not in haste, but slowly so that you may absorb its distinctive taste. Her poem is a gift meant to be opened slowly while the music is still playing and you’re still capable of dancing…
Slow Dance
By an anonymous teenager
“Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain Slapping on
the Ground? Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the
fading night? You better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast. Time is short.
The music won’t last. Do you run through each day on the fly?
When you ask how are
you? Do You hear the reply?
When the day is done do you lie in your bed with the next
hundred chores Running through your head?
You’d better slow down, don’t dance so fast.
Time is short. The Music won’t last. Ever told your child
‘We’ll do it tomorrow?’
And in your haste, Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die cause you never had time to call And say hi?
You’d better slow down. Don’t dance so fast. Time is short.
The music won’t last. When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift thrown away.
Life is not a race. Do take it slower.
Hear the music
Before the song is over.”
Her dying wish is for you to pass this on to as many people as possible. Please help fulfill a last request. In this case, share as many copies of this book as you possibly can!
One woman wrote a letter to the editor thanking me for the article and for sharing this young woman’s poem. She said she slowed down long enough to read it on the train ride home during rush hour and it brought her to tears. She decided to go out dancing with friends that weekend!
Jacques Fleury’s book You Are Enough: The Journey Towards Understanding Your Authentic Self
Jacques Stanley Fleury is a Haitian-American Poet, Author and Educator. He holds an undergraduate degree in Liberal Arts and is currently pursuing graduate studies in the literary arts at Harvard University online. Once on the editing staff of The Watermark, a literary magazine at the University of Massachusetts, his first book Sparks in the Dark: A Lighter Shade of Blue, A Poetic Memoir was featured in and endorsed by the Boston Globe. His second book: It’s Always Sunrise Somewhere and Other Stories is a collection of short fictional stories dealing with the human condition as the characters navigate life’s foibles and was featured on Good Reads. His current book and hitherto magnum opus Chain Letter to America: The One Thing You Can Do to End Racism, A Collection of Essays, Fiction and Poetry Celebrating Multiculturalism explores social justice in America and his latest book,“You Are Enough: The Journey to Accepting Your Authentic Self” along with all other previously mentioned titles are available at public libraries, The Harvard Book Store, Porter Square Books, The Grolier Bookshop, Goodreads, bookshop, Amazon etc… His CD A Lighter Shade of Blue as a lyrics writer in collaboration with the neo-folk musical group Sweet Wednesday is available on Amazon, iTunes & Spotify to benefit Haitian charity St. Boniface. —
Landed: A yogi’s memoir in pieces & poses addresses many themes common to her previous book, Places We Left Behind: a memoir-in-miniature, including dislocation, nostalgia, insecurity, and the desire to find a place to belong amid multiple international moves. And, like Places, it employs interesting literary devices: lists, poems, thought bubbles, and a true-false test. They almost read like part I and part II; Landed begins in 2011 where Places ends.
This second memoir, published 13 months after the first, goes even farther with its introspective questioning, though, as a yoga friend of Lang’s suggests that the author’s feeling adrift could be just as much due to struggles within herself as with her bi-national lifestyle and disagreements with her French husband. And we see more of Jennifer’s own work and practices to carve out her own space, within the chapters on yoga poses and classes interspersed between anecdotes of her married life and also within her account of her writing life. That includes teaching memoir writing classes in Israel as well as writing this memoir.
This book humanizes a part of the world that all too often makes headlines for the wrong reasons. It also tells the universal human story of a woman balancing concern for her husband, adult children, and aging parents, who have struggles all their own in Landed.
gone
it’s the first time
since she went
that i’ve been back here
to this outdoor café
in a crowded square
by the busy beach
at the same time
in the late afternoon
i use to come here
twice every week
after i saw her
spent an hour or two
with her
in the nursing home
where she lived
for years
today i came here
at the time i use to
and am feeling sad
as i thought i would be
and thinking lots of her
while having a coffee
enjoying the sun
and reading the paper
i suppose thoughts
and feelings
are expected
coming back here
as i’m missing her
and still find it hard
to believe
mum is gone
Stephen House has won many awards and nominations as a poet, playwright, and actor. He’s had 20 plays produced with many published by Australian Plays Transform. He’s received several international literature residencies from The Australia Council for the Arts, and an Asialink India literature residency. He’s had two chapbooks published by ICOE Press Australia: ‘real and unreal’ poetry and ‘The Ajoona Guest House’ monologue. His next book drops soon. He performs his acclaimed monologues widely. Stephen had a play run in Spain for 4 years.
