Long Horrors Poems

World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems - IV - Primo Levi

Shema
by Primo Levi
translation by Michael R. Burch

You who live secure
in your comfortable houses, 
who return each evening to find
warm food, 
welcoming faces...

consider whether this...

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I wondered how that I could be a child of the King.
A long lost soul, I had no goal, but to maybe act and sing.
I believed in Jesus, a man of love,
But scared to death...

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Resistance On The Iberian Peninsula

“Liberté, égalité, fraternité (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity),”
Scream French revolutionists as they guillotine monarchists heads, 1
Then crown Napoleon Bonaparte Emperor of France, 2
Who commands the French forces in wars raged across Europe.

The Grande...

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Despite his impatience to show me his hell,
He waited for me in my rest, 
Lying upon the ground, I awoke in prayer,
Thanking God above and asking Him for guidance

“My heart is Yours, always,
From the moment...

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THE TOUR 
WHOA! 
Stop right there my friend! 
For there’s no place in where you can run and hide  
So stop and listen  
Listen to the voices warning you to go back 
Screaming...

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Come post presidential election 2024... 

heil to the Wharton chief firebrand -
more worrisome than an ovarian cyst
every race, religion, nationality, 
gender, creed, et cetera with impunity dissed
brigand able, eager, ready and willing
to punch contenders throwing...

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"Years” and “Distance”, phantoms of the dark that do their evil
in the quietude of the everyday, coming and going without so
much as a footprint or a whisper, and taking the most valuable
possessions of the heart,...

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When I was very little, a lion lived under my bed ...

It sounds cute and funny now, but then it was a
Very real thing, and that lion terrorized me. Where
Did that lion come from? It...

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A shameful act in this world we live today
surely an educated mind can clearly see the truth behind a mask
Ignorance is the hardness of heart manifests in such violence 
The horrors and inhumanity of it...

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This is the story of Jeni Haynes, whose father inflicted horrific physical and sexual abuse on her from the age of four years old. As a result she created over 2000 alter egos to get...

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DISCLAIMER : THIS IS AN ACCOUNT OF THE MASSACRE 
IN ORADOUR-SUR-GLANE IN FRANCE WHICH TOOK PLACE
ON JUNE 1OTH  1944
TO MY READERS , " SOME LINES IN THIS POEM ARE GRAPHIC , AND
SOME MAY FIND...

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Dancing In Horror With Fate In Blackest Abyss
Collaboration with Kurt Ravidas

I walk mountain storm, step out to cut deep its edge
forever tempting that fall from its narrow ledge,
in the midst of ravenous rage and great...

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oh youth in all its callow shades
               is from our hope, precisely made
        ...

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(continued)

She wanted me to re-marry, you see, but I never did.
Oh, I had a few trysts, here-and-there,
just to remind myself the plumbing still worked,
but all it REALLY did was remind me
how much more incredible making...

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Norwegian bachelor farmer days I never lived

Woebegone and egg foo young on you
meaning me of course
sidestepping a crucial positive
electric kool aid battery acid test
prior to pledging troth,
and tying Gordian knot
to strangulation point,
never fending for myself,
nor...

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From my Blog:
Of Byron, Keats And Shelley, A Few Words

(1.)

Of Byron And A Visit I Once Had

Alas! Youth and its joy away has flown
I wake at the break of day with a groan
the smooth mirror...

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YOUR FINAL STAND... GREEN SOLDIERS!
WARNING: ADULT SUBJECT, STRONG CONTENT


RIVERS of RED
   FACES of BLUE
      SKYS of GRAY
WHAT LESSONS can be learned from POLAND?

1945 my FAMILY fled the RUSSIAN...

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Hilda my partner turned in her bed as the early morning train hurtled by at breakneck speed sending tremors round our dwelling.
Those long flowing tresses embrace the shafts of first light so enthusiastically.
An otherworldly spot...

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The Greek gods were egotistic, arrogant, jealous,
Said to be excellent lovers, fanatics, and zealous
About everything and anything, lounged around
Adorning places like Marathona, the Acropolis
The Parthenon.  Archaeology
Maintains that Greek Mythology 
Goes back to the Bronze...

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The bombing of Pearl Harbour was the turning point for me
That day I enlisted in the army, despite protests from my family
I tried to reassure them by saying that everything would be fine
And after six...

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Sad feelings always return,
No matter what I do,
Say or think,
No matter what I don’t do,
Say or think.

Leaving me sometimes,
Sadness disappears,
Just long enough, 
To tease me,
To please me,
To freeze me.

Hope sinks in,
Hope settles down,
Hope hopes for...

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PTSD

Like rabbit in the headlight caught
I want to move, i know I ought
But quicksand stuck, I’m petrified 
My body still, arms laid by side
Stretched out on mattress, naked, soaked
From sweat in which my body’s cloaked
My eyes...

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silent issues

humanity
and the hypocrisy
of soft tissues

openly
running out of paper rolls
secretly
disgrace on humanity's cheeks silently rolls

there's a monument
on earth
to the unknown soldier

there's a monument
in the firmaments
to the unknown child 

a well known secret

a hood by night...

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dreams …

diaphanous …
mysteries of the mind
that will never find an answer
fluid and dynamic
beyond our affect or sense …
personally,
I remember only a couple from my childhood
rather nondescript …
and early adulthood was par -
mostly confused jargon
fueled by...

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Kites still left hanging upon the winds oh, yes, the generous enchantment, the ever-innocent simplicity. 

Warning us and swirling around and whooshing about amid the humble Streams in the Spring. 

Time jovial, patient Offering Loving...

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