Guest guest Posted April 6, 2000 Report Share Posted April 6, 2000 Thank you for making us aware of these poems Gloria. Reading them is heartbreaking for me. Please share about Michael Flack who was then 14 at Terezin Concentration Camp and survived and is still alive at 70 today. Also, about your meeting with Robert Convery, share if you feel comfortable. Thanks Gloria. I hope you have not minded my bringing up the poems here. We need to teach our children and young people to reflect on the capacity for cruelty and injustice that lies within the human psyche when it is unconscious and the enormous suffering this can cause. Perhaps by reflecting on the suffering of others and our own as well, we can move towards awareness of the sacredness of life inherent in all sentient beings. One with a profound understanding and awareness of the sameness of all life will not wish to harm and will act to minimize violence. And I agree with you Roger that upon seeing suffering, we need to take action to alleviate that suffering. What action one takes will often depend on one's dharma. The principle of Ahimsa (non-violence) is universal and the foundation of all Dharma. Therefore, we should act to minimize suffering. Love to all Harsha Gloria Lee wrote: > Might we just once listen to the children.... > > The poems may be read all together at the webpage Jerry has generously provided. > > SONGS OF CHILDREN > > This collection of nine poems written by children while interned at Terezin > Concentration Camp were selected as the lyrics for a cantata composed by Robert > Convery in memory of all children who perished in the Holocaust. It was first > performed in NYC, April of 1991. > > http://www.nonduality.com/terezin.htm > > 3. ON A SUNNY EVENING > > On a purple, sun-shot evening > Under wide-flowering chestnut trees > Upon the threshold full of dust > Yesterday, today, the days are all like these. > > Trees flower forth in beauty, > Lovely too their very wood all gnarled and old > That I am half afraid to peer > Into their crowns of green and gold. > > The sun has made a veil of gold > So lovely that my body aches. > Above, the heavens shriek with blue > Convinced I've smiled by some mistake. > The world's abloom and seems to smile. > I want to fly but where, how high? > If in barbed wire, things can bloom > Why couldn't I? I will not die! > > Anonymous 1944 > > 8. BIRDSONG > > He doesn't know the world at all > Who stays in his nest and doesn't go out. > He doesn't know what birds know best > Nor what I want to sing about, > That the world is full of loveliness. > > When dewdrops sparkle in the grass > And earth's aflood with morning light, > A blackbird sings upon a bush > To greet the dawning after night. > Then I know how fine it is to live. > > Hey, try to open up your heart > To beauty; go to the woods someday > And weave a wreath of memory there. > Then if the tears obscure your way > You'll know how wonderful it is > To be alive. > > Anonymous 1941 > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 6, 2000 Report Share Posted April 6, 2000 Harsha wrote: > Thanks Gloria. I hope you have not minded my bringing up the poems here. We need to teach our children and young people to reflect on the capacity for cruelty and injustice that lies within the human psyche when it is unconscious and the enormous suffering this can cause. Perhaps by reflecting on the suffering of others and our own as well, we can move towards awareness of the sacredness of life inherent in all sentient beings. One with a profound understanding and awareness of the sameness of all life will not wish to harm and will act to minimize violence. > > And I agree with you Roger that upon seeing suffering, we need to take action to alleviate that suffering. What action one takes will often depend on one's dharma. The principle of Ahimsa (non-violence) is universal and the foundation of all Dharma. Therefore, we should act to minimize suffering. R: I like what you're saying here Harsha, that one's action depends on one's dharma. Religions often seek security by clinging to rigid moral doctrine. Yet such rigidity creates friction by struggling against the natural diversity of life. The ahimsa of Ghandi and the ahimsa of Arjuna, the ideal warrior of Bhagavad Gita, are outwardly much different, yet perfectly suited to each individual. The poems of Terezin, although written more than half a century ago, are the songs for now. It's spring time again here in Littleton Colorado. 17 children & 1 adult have been shot to death at or near Columbine High School in the last year. Roger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 6, 2000 Report Share Posted April 6, 2000 >Harsha wrote: >> Thanks Gloria. I hope you have not minded my bringing up the poems here. >We need to teach our children and young people to reflect on the capacity >for cruelty and injustice that lies within the human psyche when it is >unconscious and the enormous suffering this can cause. Perhaps by reflecting >on the suffering of others and our own as well, we can move towards >awareness of the sacredness of life inherent in all sentient beings. One >with a profound understanding and awareness of the sameness of all life will >not wish to harm and will act to minimize violence. >> >> And I agree with you Roger that upon seeing suffering, we need to take >action to alleviate that suffering. What action one takes will often depend >on one's dharma. The principle of Ahimsa (non-violence) is universal and the >foundation of all Dharma. Therefore, we should act to minimize suffering. > >R: I like what you're saying here Harsha, that one's action depends on one's >dharma. Religions often seek security by clinging to rigid moral doctrine. >Yet such rigidity creates friction by struggling against the natural >diversity of life. The ahimsa of Ghandi and the ahimsa of Arjuna, the ideal >warrior of Bhagavad Gita, are outwardly much different, yet perfectly suited >to each individual. > >The poems of Terezin, although written more than half a century ago, are the >songs for now. It's spring time again here in Littleton Colorado. 17 >children & 1 adult have been shot to death at or near Columbine High School >in the last year. > >Roger > Dear Harsha and Roger, Thank you for your responses. Tho it is my privilege to have been learning this cantata, Songs of Children, I often feel what could possibly add to the poems themselves. Our choral group met the composer, Robert Convery, last night. He is a very gentle soul and a soft spoken man. His music is exquisitely sensitive to the meaning of the poems. I like to think it would make the children happy to know people are listening to their poems and that they have become this beautiful music. Despite this tearful poignancy one feels, somehow a love for the children becomes a love for singing their words. Their afffirmation of the precious gift life is and the love of beauty they retained amidst the horror of their existence in Terezin is beyond incredible. Practicing these songs for three months to the point they become memorized has deeply affected all in the choir. One never gets used to or gets over the heartbreak, if anything it deepens. Still the message is one of love and it is only when we can come from love that anything done may improve our world. When there is a "greater appreciation for the sacredness of all life" as Harsha wrote, we can act positively to affirm this. Mr. Convery learned after the music became known that "Mif" is the initials of Michael Flack, now in his 70's, and one of only a hundred or so survivors of the 15,000 children who passed through Terezin. He also wrote poems #3 and #7. Corrections will be made. These poems and also drawings were carefully hidden in cracks in the walls of the ghetto buildings and were retrieved after the war. The ones in the cantata were in Czech archives, but many others have been translated and recently published by the Holocaust Museum in a book, "I Never Saw Another Butterfly," which Amazon lists the paperback at $14. Also the movie, Playing for Time, with Vanessa Redgrave, was made to tell the story of Terezin. While I can understand the reasons people brought up other historical instances of horror, how can one diminish any other? If anything, this is brought up to increase awareness of those other instances as well. The cruelty of social rejection and ridicule was a factor in the Littleton killings, violence begins in little ways. There is a silent Holocaust occurring now in Africa, brought on by aids orphaning so many children. America has its own ghettos and we spent more building prisons than we did on education last year. I think the gift of art is to personalize and put a name and identity, to make real the suffering of the nameless multitudes. The point is to NOT replay the causes and "justifications" of WW2. Roger, the cantata was commissioned as a work to be performed in schools, and since 1991 it has been heard in over 35 schools in various states. Littleton would seem a good place to hear it. It does require above average musicians for the piano, violin, and cello parts, but if you can find any choral group willing to perform it, I'll be glad to put you in touch with the composer for getting the score. I like the way you said these "are the songs for now." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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