Walk with me
among my people,
lives lost,
innocence stolen,
futures robbed.
Walk with me
among these glass towers,
engraved with numbers.
These numbers were once people,
steam rising through metal grates,
my insides tuning inside out.
Tears falling for those slaughtered,
their voices silenced forever.
I feel one with them,
even if I walk along the
borders of religion and faith.
I feel one.
I read quotes inscribed of survivors
left behind,
my heart saturated in pain.
Images seared in my mind
of people dying,
families vanished,
children that will never grow up.
My great grandparents,
their home burnt to the ground,
murdered in cold blood.
My heart heavy,
I want you to walk with me,
through the gates of hell,
where humanity lost it's mind,
where humanity lost itself.
Stand beside me,
hold my hand,
feel my beating heart,
screaming in rage.
My veins filled with legacy of
persecution,
honor,
and pain.
Walk with me as one,
feel my soul sigh in anguish.
Remember those silenced,
remember the past,
and let it never happen again.
I was inspired to write this when I visited Boston this weekend. It was a short visit and I am grateful that I got to see it with Irina my son's girlfriend. If you wish to read more on it, here is a link, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_Holocaust_Memorial .
I felt moved in a way only this poem can explain. I am not a religious person but I've always felt spiritual. That always makes me feel guilty because of my legacy. I married a Christian and at the time it was hard for my parents and grandparents to accept because they were holocaust survivors. Please meet us here, http://dversepoets.com/ where we share our thoughts and our hearts.
I stand beside you, and I walk with you, Ayala, a beautiful tribut to lost souls, found again in your memory. Lest we forget.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jackie. Honored to walk with you.
DeleteA moving piece of remembrance ayala. I stand with you too, and feel it.
ReplyDeleteThank you so kindly. I feel honored.
DeleteI'm not a devout Catholic. I don't agree with every word, or dogma. My motto "Many paths, one God." And I mean it. There is a commonality among all our faiths. There is no true right answer. Be good to yourself, and be good to others is just exactly what we all need to do. IF we all just followed the golden rule it would be a much tolerable life to live. This piece is haunting and riveting and soul wrenching. The pain, piercing, lasts for such a short while. Life has an expiration date. I pray for peace daily.
ReplyDeleteAlita, I also believe in "many paths, one God". I live with my heart open. I wish more people saw it your way and mine..then we could find peace. Thanks my friend.
Deleteanother great capture.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Pat.
Deletewow makes me think of the one in DC...it was a harrowing experience...but so true...and i def think should be experienced once so that you understand....whew...
ReplyDeleteThe one in D.C is just amazing and the one in Jerusalem. This felt like someone kicked me in the gut. I was moved. I woke up at 4 A.M thinking of this poem.
DeleteYes, may we never lose touch with our humanity again.
ReplyDeleteAmen.
Deletewhere humanity lost it's mind,
ReplyDeletewhere humanity lost itself....you found words to describe the horror..a very powerful write ayala...
Thank you, Claudia. I felt sick halfway through writing this poem...I felt everything that I felt while walking through it.
Deletewonderful Ayala, I'm glad you got to make the journey with your sons girlfriend - very moving 'where humanity lost its mind' and itself x x lib
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lib. xx
DeleteIt should never have happened and ought never to happen to again and yet, we are not so far removed from being those people even now with all that we know. We just have to look at the dreadful inhumanity happening in the middle east and some parts of North Africa to see that man's inhumanity to man And women and children) is still happening.
ReplyDeleteI feel this Ayala. Your sorrow, your pain for all those who perished because they had a faith someone else didn't like.
I feel you, Bren. I am outraged at what's happening in the world today. I feel like we would have learned by now.....Thank you.
DeleteI am walking with you...never to forget but to always remember ~ Lovely share Ayala ~
ReplyDeleteThank you, Grace.
DeleteI've not been, but my son has been to a different one and I was remembering the Vietnam War Memorial as I read this and my father's painful description of Buchenwald when he was one of the soldiers liberating it.
ReplyDeleteColleen, thanks to your father so many lives were saved. I thank him and you.
DeleteImpossible to imagine. Just impossible. And so important to remember. Thanks for the lovely/sad poem. k .
ReplyDeleteThank you, Karin. Hard truths.
DeleteThis is a beautiful place, and a wonderful, moving piece. So glad you had such a beautiful weekend for your visit!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Adrienne. Still hoping we could see one another when I go up there.xx
DeleteAyala, anyone who has a heart has to be moved by that tragedy. A beautiful, heartbreaking piece.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sara.
DeleteIf only we could all join hands and walk together, life would be so good.
ReplyDeletesometimes I wonder why we can't.
DeleteSo sorry for your loss. This poem is so intense and raw. I felt your pain reading this. I'm glad you were able to visit there even if it was bitter sweet.
ReplyDeleteThank you...that's how I felt raw pain.
Deletewhere humanity lost its mind...
ReplyDeletemay we never lose ours again. Walking with you on this one, Ayala. Such a difficult, deep write. Glad to visit you again =)
Thank you, Pat. Happy you are walking with me. Nice to see you again.
DeleteI wish we could all see ourselves as more alike than different. Somehow that seems to be more difficult than ever these days :(
ReplyDeleteI wish so too.
DeleteĿ♡ѴƐ ஆ ❤
ReplyDeleteThank you, dear Helena.
DeleteI can't understand how people can be convinced to KILL other people. People they don't even know. How few differences there are between any two of us, how much more binds us together. The staff of life supports us all. Your poem celebrates that and is deep with sympathy and loss.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Gay. I can't understand it either. I feel we are all connected.
DeleteI just finished watching a documentary on the genocide of the people of Tibet and then came here and saw your poem speaking of another one... It seems we have not yet found our minds and the people of the world are again turning a blind eye. I was most touched by your reaction to visiting that memorial and the strong feelings it evoked in you, Ayala.
ReplyDeleteI see the value in all beliefs...there are many commonalities found throughout many different teachings. I take these to heart and leave behind what does not resonate within me.
I agree, Gayle. The world is turning a blind eye and I just can't understand it.
DeleteSorry for your loss Ayala. You capture the angst of this emotion in your words. Raw and authentic, it leaves a lingering feeling of deep sadness.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Rudri. I felt physically sick halfway through writing it.
DeletePowerful deliverance for an affirmation more than worthy, this is a message to be adhered and respected :) Beautiful xo
ReplyDeleteThank you, Poppy. xo
DeletePowerful description of a despicable time.
ReplyDelete"where humanity lost it's mind" So true.
So happy you "married a Christian" ;-)
So happy too, my love.
DeleteYou know I'm the lucky one.
DeleteStrong words here, just what are needed to characterize the unspeakable
ReplyDeleteThank you, Steve.
DeleteThis is really heartfelt. Such pain carries on down the generations. I wish we would always remember these things, these lessons of history, perhaps our kind would stop falling into ways of violence and hate. Thank you for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I wish we could act before it's too late to....
DeleteYes, humanity has gone insane. I've felt that for so long. You can't drive down the street anymore without seeing the absolute hatred. Were your great-grandparents really killed like that? That's so terrible. I'm sad for you if they were. When I was raised my own children I was so scared to let them out of my sight. It's like my wife or I had to take them everywhere they went and either be there with them or make sure another adult was there. I had read so many news stories about child molesters and drivers who in a hurry just run people over.... I was so scared all the time. But it wasn't like that when I was a kid. We rode our bikes everywhere. There was almost never an adult with us unless it was a church or sport function. So I asked my Dad once, "Was there no crime back then? No child molesters, or insane, selfish, drunk drivers?" And he said "Of course there were." So I asked "Then why did you let us run around like we did?" And his answer struck home with me: "And what? Rob your childhood away?" And the bottom line is that even in the midst of evil I was better off that way. The memories of my childhood are wonderful. It wasn't until much later that I found out about the true hatred and evil of the rest of the world. In fact, poem this week is exactly about that. Wonderful poem here.....
ReplyDeleteYes, my great grandparents were killed this way. The world is crazy today but to kill millions of people because of their faith is insanity that I will never understand.
DeletePowerful write, Ayala. I agree; never again.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Charles. Never again.
DeleteBeautiful Ayala...wishing you and your beloveds a year of sweetness, strength, healing and wholeness...shannah tova.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Laura. Shannah Tova to you and yours. All the best. xo
DeleteA beautiful and powerful narrative, Ayala. I have visited the monument in Washington. It does pull at you, agreed.
ReplyDeletePamela
Thank you, Pam. The holocaust museum in Washington is amazing.
DeleteWhile I cannot know or feel that which flowed within you and onto this page, I can try to understand. This piece is so personal, yet it speaks for and to millions (myself included) that we never forget.
ReplyDeletePowerful and emotional piece. Enjoyed feeling it through your eyes.
ReplyDeleteGene
Thank you, Gene. I appreciate it.
Deletebeautiful piece of writing here...this hit home especially since I'm a Jew and am living with my step grandfather who is a holocaust survivor! nice to know your jewish as well..thanx for always browsing my blog!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Channzi.
DeleteBeautiful and respectful. As I read, I thought of a different memorial that I visited recently, the one in Oklahoma City. Your poem is incredibly moving and very well written. I'm pleased to have experienced it.
ReplyDeleteThank you kindly, Beth. So many lost lives....so sad.
DeletePowerful piece.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ollie.
DeleteI stand by you, tears in my eyes, holding your hand. This is heartwrenching. xo
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kelly. xo
DeleteI feel for your sadness and sufferings ayala! Pity it had all happened!
ReplyDeleteHank
Thank you, Hank. It is a pity and insanity.
DeleteYou have so much to say and you say it beautifully. Your emotions are glaring through your words.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Chaya.
DeleteThe sadness in this touches me. May the atrocities of the past never come again.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Susie. We must remember always.
Deletethe resonating effect the souls had on you was nothing short of haunting. Really capture the pain, lingering long past the end, feeling each ounce of ache and sadness. You really got the atmosphere and feeling down great. Thanks
ReplyDeleteThank you, Fred. It was haunting and gut wrenching.
DeleteIn silence we must remember but we'll forget until another generation discovers its guilt. There was a moving star trek voyager episode on this issue where the crew was forced to relive a genocide in 'reality' through a telepathic beacon so least they forget being literal. Sadly it had broken which is why they were effected so those who had made it had forgotten!
ReplyDeleteThank you, John. Interesting, I had not seen it but I will attempt to.
Deletelove the invocation in this to "walk with me..."; if we don't remember, we are doomed to repeat. thank you for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Joanna. It felt very powerful to me as I walked through the memorial.
DeleteWhat a powerful and heartfelt reflection.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mary.
DeleteI don;t know if I could take a walk like that--so horrific, so emblematic of all that is so flawed within us--but you have spared nothing in your poem, and I feel I've been there now. I do join you in hoping for a better future, though at times, its hard to see how that will come to be.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Joy. I hope for a better today and a better future....
DeleteThis is so deeply touching, Ayala. We must never forget the Holocaust. A great human tragedy of our time. (Mine, anyway).
ReplyDeleteI know a personal one for you, Victoria. I am sorry.
DeleteI agree with so many other posters...deeply touching. And what you write about your family? I can relate on so many levels...
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ameena.
DeleteMy father's life was changed and molded by the holocaust and so this hits close to home. Humanity did lose its mind.
ReplyDeleteI agree. My father survived the holocaust as a child...he saw things no child should see.
Deleteall I can say is WOW!... I felt it :(
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteWow. I've never seen that memorial, but the beauty and power of your words certainly do it justice.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kristen. The words come from my heart.
ReplyDeletethis is very powerful. i think you honor your legacy well...
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing, it was powerful and beautifully said.
ReplyDelete