Member Poem

for the children of the Holocaust and the Palestinian Nakba

Something inescapable is lost—
lost like a pale vapor curling up into shafts of moonlight,
vanishing in a gust of wind toward an expanse of stars
immeasurable and void.

Something uncapturable is gone—
gone with the spent leaves and illuminations of autumn,
scattered into a haze with the faint rustle of parched grass
and remembrance.

Something unforgettable is past—
blown from a glimmer into nothingness, or less,
which finality has swept into a corner ... where it lies
in dust and cobwebs and silence.

Published by There is Something in the Autumn (anthology), The Eclectic Muse (Canada), Setu (India), Poezii (Romanian translation by Petru Dimofte), Borderless Journal (Singapore), Boloji (India), FreeXpression (Australia), Life and Legends, Poetry Super Highway, Poet’s Corner, Promosaik (Germany), Better Than Starbucks, The Chained Muse; also used in numerous Holocaust projects; also translated into Turkish by Nurgül Yayman; turned into a YouTube video by Lillian Y. Wong; and used by Windsor Jewish Community Centre during a candle-lighting ceremony and by Park Hill Church in a Holocaust remembrance service

NOTE: This is the first nonrhyming poem I wrote, and the only one for quite some time. I consider it one of the best of my early poems, written as a teen around my senior year in high school or freshman year in college.

Keywords/Tags: Holocaust, Nakba, Gaza, death, loss, tragedy, nothing, nothingness, vapor