In Tribute to Etty Hillesum - Simone Denny

[Larry Robinson]

In Tribute to Etty Hillesum - Author of An Interrupted Life, Murdered at Auschwitz 10/30/43

(1)
There are enemies
who want to make
your world narrow
and they say
it’s not so bad, there are
plenty of shops that serve your kind,
 
but the fences tighten                        
and each morning the boundary gets closer  
and there is no place left to go.
 
Etty, wakes to learn
the forest in her city
 is closed to Jews.
 
The pleasure of a picnic
has been stolen
and to love life is a criminal transgression.
 
The few trees outside the window,
she writes
must be a forest for us now.
 
We must become full on meager
scraps of God’s world
trafficking illegal joy.
 
      
    (2)
In 1942
they loaded cattle cars with Jews.
Etty said,
“All right. So now I learn
to travel light.
 
She took the Bible and
Letters to a Young Poet                                 
by Rainer Maria Rilke.
                                                    
She said
“We’ll live
until we’re dead,”
and in the dark
she sat and read.

       - Simone Denny
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