Transit

Former Poet Laureate Rita Dove’s “Transit” reflects on the life of Holocaust survivor Alice Herz-Sommer, who spent 2 years in Theresienstadt concentration camp. While it recalls events of 80 years ago, its themes-- resilience and self-sustenance—still apply today in every corner of the world, particularly in the Ukraine. This weekend, as we celebrate Ramadan, Easter, and Passover, chances are we will all take a moment to think of our fellow human beings and wish them sustenance.

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Transit
by Rita Dove

This is the house that music built:
each note a fingertip’s purchase,
rung upon rung laddering

across the unspeakable world.
As for those other shrill facades
rigged-for-a-day porticos

composed to soothe regiments
of eyes, guilt-reddened,
lining the parade route

(horn flash, woodwind wail)…
well, let them cheer.
I won’t speak judgement on

the black water passing for coffee,
white water for soup.
We supped instead each night

on Chopin—hummed our grief-
soaked lullabies to the rapture
rippling through. Let it be said

while in the midst of horror
we fed on beauty—and that,
my love, is what sustained us.