Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust [Paperback]

Charles M. Fishman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1992

Any crime against humanity, regardless of proportion, revives the age-old question: How are we to learn from what has happened, lest atrocity repeat itself? In response, scholars labor to record ever more accurate and complete histories; archivists gather countless memoirs for posterity; logicians ponder causal relations and motives; and psychologists and sociobiologists scrutinize human aggression and passivity. Yet how can we keep history alive without becoming inured to it? Perhaps these poets know. Of all that has been written about the Holocaust, nothing is likely to surpass this heroic composition in power or in fidelity. Nothing is likely to tell the story better. In this symphonic work, Charles Fishman draws together an extraordinarily rich chorus of voices that represent the American response to the Holocaust. Fishman has listened to these voices as if they were his own, as if in this close attentiveness he would discover the record of his own complex relationship with that fatal epoch. Indeed, this arresting composition flows like an elegiac collection by a single author. Two brief thematic sequences are prelude to three long movements that track the Holocaust from the terrifying pogrom known as Kristallnacht through the decades immediately following the Holocaust, to the present. This surprising, significant, and deeply engaging orchestration provides most eloquent witness. Charles Fishman is Distinguished Service Professor of English and Humanities at SUNY Farmingdale, where he has directed the Visiting Writers Program since 1979. Among other awards and honors, he has received three National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships and the Gertrude B. Claytor Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America. His five published books of poetry include Mortal Companions, The Death Mazurka, and Zoom. Catlives: Sarah Kirsch’s Katzenleben, a translation of poetry with Marina Roscher, was released by Texas Tech University Press in 1991.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

We Are The Echoes by Carol Adler
Benny by Fran Adler
In My Own Nightmares by Mari Alschuler
I Am A Star by Inge Auerbacher
Something To Remember Me By by Inge Auerbacher
Lament For The Gypsies by Julius Balbin
Tonight by Julius Balbin
Miklos Radnoti by Willis Barnstone
The Rose Of Blue Flesh by Willis Barnstone
There Is One Synagogue Extant In Kiev by Willis Barnstone
The Extermination Of The Jews; To Donald Justice by Marvin Bell
Maschlacki by Lora Berg
Memory, Sels. by Stephen Berg
Juliek's Violin by Michael Blumenthal
Pitchipoi by George Bogin
The Excavator by Emily Borenstein
I Must Tell The Story by Emily Borenstein
The Shoah by Emily Borenstein
The Hindenburg by Van K. Brock
The Nightmare by Van K. Brock
At The Jewish Museum by Olga Cabral
Exposure by Esther Cameron
To Gisi Fleischmann by Joan Campion
Etchings by James William Chichetto
The Gift by John Ciardi
For The Ardeatine Caves: 1. Above The Giardino Alla Francese by Vince Clemente
For The Ardeatine Caves: 2. Inside The Ardeatine Caves by Vince Clemente
I Remember Coming Into Warsaw, A Child by Helen Degan Cohen
In Hiding by Helen Degan Cohen
A View From The Ghetto by Helen Degan Cohen
Not A Dream, Just Thoughts by Marion Deutsch Cohen
At A Mass Grave by M. Truman Cooper
Eli 1943 by R. M. Cooper
Rebecca 1942 by R. M. Cooper
Rebecca 1944 by R. M. Cooper
The Children Of Terezin by Stanley Cooperman
There Were Those Who Escaped To The Forests by Susan Dambroff
Yellow Starred by Mary Philip De Camara
Kaddish by Catherine De Vinck
School Of Music by Theodore Deppe
Jonathan's Song by Owen Dodson
The Brooch by Olga Drucker
Vilna 1938 by Shelley Ehrlich
Ad by Kenneth Fearing
Grandfather In Winter by Frederick Feirstein
The Pripet Marshes by Irving Feldman
Scene Of A Summer Morning by Irving Feldman
Survivor by Ruth (wasby) Feldman
Digging by Frank Louis Finale
The Death Mazurka by Charles Fishman
Weltanschauung by Charles Fishman
I Did Not Know, But I Remember by Tamara Fishman
Icon by Ephim Fogel
Shipment To Maidanek by Ephim Fogel
Izieu by Carolyn Forche
Seriatim by Robert A. Frauenglas
God's Death by Florence Wallach Freed
Quiet Desperation by Mike Frenkel
Skin by Sari Friedman
Taking Leave by Carol Ganzer
The Tailor by Patricia Garfinkel
For Nelly Sachs by Kinereth Gensler
Dead Men Don't Praise God by Jacob Glatstein
I'll Find My Self-belief In A Dustpuff Of Wonder by Jacob Glatstein
Little Boy by Jacob Glatstein
Nightsong by Jacob Glatstein
Without Jews by Jacob Glatstein
Diary Of A Tashkent Jew by Gloria Glickstein
The Ghetto by Gloria Glickstein
Survivor by Barbara Goldberg
Rotterdam - 1946 by Thomas A. Goldman
History by Jorie Graham
The Martyrs Are Calling by Ber Green
We Week You, One And Only God by Luba Krugman Gurdus
Cattle Train To Magdeburg by John Z. Guzlowski
How Early Fall Came This Year by John Z. Guzlowski
Boghos Sarkissian,... Remembers The Turkish Atrocities, 1905 by Leo Hamalian
Trilogy by Cecile Hamermesh
On Watching Heritage: Civilization And The Jews by Deborah Hanan
Earrings by Annette Bialik Harchik
'more Light! More Light!' by Anthony Hecht
Chant For All The People On Earth by Leslie Woolf Hedley
The Blue Parakeet by Julie N. Heifetz
Harry Lenga: 1. Kozienice, Poland 1939 by Julie N. Heifetz
Harry Lenga: 2. Departure 1940 by Julie N. Heifetz
Harry Lenga: 3. Auschwitz by Julie N. Heifetz
Harry Lenga: 4. Ebensee, Austria, May, 1945 by Julie N. Heifetz
The Wheel by Julie N. Heifetz
The Children by William Heyen
My Holocaust Songs by William Heyen
Riddle by William Heyen
Simple Truths by William Heyen
Paul Celan: A Grave And Mysterious Sentence by Edward Hirsch
The Anniversary Poem by Diana Der Hovanessian
And There Wree Pits by Barbara Helfgott Hyett
In Some Of The Bunks by Barbara Helfgott Hyett
You Know The Funny Thing Is by Barbara Helfgott Hyett
1905 by David Ignatow
1985 - In A Small American Town by Judith Irwin
The Third Generation by Katherine Janowitz
A Camp In The Prussian Forest by Randall Jarrell
Passover At Auschwitz by Laurence Josephs
The Scar - August, 1934 by Hans Juergensen
Yad Vashem by Hans Juergensen
Medium by Marc Kaminsky
Bramble by Peretz Kaminsky
Identifications by Peretz Kaminsky
Kol Nidre by Rosa Felsenburg Kaplan
For Malka Who Lived Three Days Dying by Laura K. Kasischke
Line-up by Dori Katz
The Return by Dori Katz
Kaddish, Sels. by Melanie Kaye-kantrowitz
Your Memory Is Leashed Into My Life by Miriam Kessler
Di Rayse Aheym %the Journey Home by Irena Klepfisz
Solitary Acts by Irena Klepfisz
After The Holocaust, No Poetry by David Koenig
Onkel Fritz Is Sitting by David Koenig
The Little Boy With His Hands Up by Yala Korwin
Passover Night 1942 by Yala Korwin
Westminster Synagogue by Aaron Kramer
Zudioska by Aaron Kramer
The Name Of A Place by Norbert Krapf
Leaving A Country Behind by Carolyn Kreiter-kurylo
A Song by J. L. Kubicek
The Amsterdam Poem by Maxine W. Kumin
A Million Paris Of Shoes by Aaron Kurtz
Dan's Shoe Repair: 1959 by Christine Lahey
Babi Yar by Carole Glasser Langille
Independence Day: Eureka by Cornel Adam Lengyel
During The Eichmann Trial: 3. Crystal Night by Denise Levertov
He Had Not Looked by Denise Levertov
In Saxony by Philip Levine
On A Drawing By Flavio by Philip Levine
The Survivor by Philip Levine
A Few More Things About The Holocaust by Leatrice H. Lifshitz
The Thief by Abraham Linik
Meditation After Hearing The Richard Yardumian Mass ... by Geraldine Clinton Little
Auschwitz Reportaz by Alan Lupack
September 1944 by Arnost Lustig
In Remembrance Of The Children Of Izieu by Arlene Maass
Opa The Watchmaker by Arlene Maass
Counting Sheep By Night by Lois Mathieu
For The Children by David Mckain
Pigeons by Bert Meyers
Theresienstadt Poem by Robert Mezey
The Jews That We Are by Richard Michelson
Undressing Aunt Frieda by Richard Michelson
1945 by Bernard S. Mikofsky
Mame-loshen, Yiddish by Bernard S. Mikofsky
Not Dachau by Aaron Miller
Tsena Tsena (second Generation) by Marilyn Mohr
Lullaby by Teresa Moszkowicz-syrop
The Tomatoes by Teresa Moszkowicz-syrop
The Last Visa For Palestine by Elaine Mott
On The Wings Of The Wind by Elaine Mott
Drawing The Blinds by Gerald Musinsky
I Wake From A Dream Of Killing Hitler by Mark Nepo
In The Heaven Of Night by Amos Neufeld
A Shade Of Night by Amos Neufeld
Yom Hashoah by Estelle Gershgoren Novak
Reforger by Miriam Offenberg
The Poacher by Gregory Orfalea
Why I Write About The Holocaust by Gary Pacernick
Rachel (rachel [ra'chal,] A Ewe) by Linda Pastan
Response by Linda Pastan
The Witness by Monique Pasternak
Auschwitz: Unforgettable by Mark Pawlak
Thoughts Under The Giant Sequoia by Edmund Pennant
Yom Hazikaron by Edmund Pennant
God Teaches Us How To Forgive, But We Forget by Louis Phillips
Voices by Ronald William Pies
The Ascensions by William Pillen
Farewell To Europe by William Pillen
Miserere by William Pillen
The Requirement by William Pillen
The Terrified Meadows by William Pillen
The Survivor by John Christopher Pine
I Am Babi Yar by Ginger Porter
A Couple Of Survivors by David Ray
Kitty Returns To Auschwitz by David Ray
And Nothing Moved by Richard C. Raymond
Numbers by Norah Reap
The Six Million by Naomi Replansky
At Your Table, Vienna V, 1957 by Lisa Ress
The Family Album by Lisa Ress
U. S. Army Holds Dance For Camp Survivors. Germany, 1945 by Lisa Ress
Inscriptions: 1944-1956, Sels. by Charles Reznikoff
Mass Graves: 3 by Charles Reznikoff
After Claude Lanzmann's Shoah by Liliane Richman
To My Mother Who Endured by Liliane Richman
Hands: Abraham Kunstler by Michael David Riley
Auschwitz by Nicholas Rinaldi
A Cantor's Dream Before The Days Of Awe by Martin Robbins
Chicago Scene (1952, 1969) by Martin Robbins
Late Twentieth Century Pastoral by William Pitt Root
The Lanternman by Marina Roscher
The Second Generation by Menachem Z. Rosensaft
The Nazi In The Dock, At Sixty by Larry Rubin
The Gift by Luada Sandler
A Scene From Shoah by Luada Sandler
Aspen Oktoberfest by Reg Saner
The Invocation To Kali: 3. The Concentration Camps by Eleanor May Sarton
The Hungarian Mission by Ruth Lisa Schechter
For Victims by David Shapiro
Tattoo by Gregg Shapiro
Ditty by Harvey Shapiro
In The Absence Of Yellow by Reva Sharon
Unanswerable Questions, Terezin by Reva Sharon
Sitting This One Out by Steven Sher
Little Lamb by Pearl B. Sheridan
Remembering by Enid Shomer
Women Bathing At Bergen-belsen by Enid Shomer
Letter To Veinna From Paris, 1942 by Maurya Simon
Munich, 1955 by Maurya Simon
The Bird by Louis Simpson
A Story About Chicken Soup by Louis Simpson
Saving The Children by Frieda Singer
Blessed Art Thou, No-one by Myra Sklarew
Hollow Cost by Joan Jobe Smith
Carolyn's Neighbor by Deborah S. Snyder
City Children At A Summer Camp. Slonim, 1936 by Kirtland Snyder
Selma ... A Pot Of Soup ... A Bottle Of Milk. Lodz, 1938 by Kirtland Snyder
Another Book On The Holocaust by Joel R. Solonche
Memories Of December by Gizela Spunberg
The Three by Martin Steingesser
Adler by Gerald Stern
Soap by Gerald Stern
Dachau by Mary Kathryn Stillwell
Yom Kippur by Bradley R. Strahan
... And The Earth Rebelled by Yuri Suhl
After That Time by Harriet Susskind
Miemand by Marie Syrkin
The Reckoning by Marie Syrkin
Being Children by Marilynn Carole Glick Talal
For Our Dead by Marilynn Carole Glick Talal
1939 by Elaine Terranova
Gaby At The U. N. Observation Post by Susan Tichy
The Song Of Iron Paul by William Trowbridge
Auschwitz #1 by Alfred Van Loen
Auschwitz #5, Devilish Tortures Invented By Humans by Alfred Van Loen
Auschwitz #6 by Alfred Van Loen
The Little Place by Anneliese Wagner
Midsummer: 38 by Derek Walcott
Sonia At 32 by Morrie Warshawski
1945, The Silence by Burton D. Wasserman
Dachau Moon by Michael Waters
The Dancing Dog by Florence Weinberger
Survivor by Florence Weinberger
Roses And The Grave by Vera Weislitz
The Late Train by Theodore Russell Weiss
The Death Ship by Ruth Whitman
Maria Olt by Ruth Whitman
Spit by Charles Kenneth Williams
Sanity by Betty Wisoff
After Forty Years by Carolyne Wright
Ks by Carolyne Wright
To The End by Jeffrey A. Z. Zable
Entrance To The Old Cracow Ghetto by David Zucker
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

About the Author

Charles Ades Fishman created the Visiting Writers Program at Farmingdale State College in 1979 and served as director until 1997. He also developed the Distinguished Speakers Program for Farmingdale State and led that program from 2001 through 2007. In addition, he was cofounder of the Long Island Poetry Collective (1973), a founding editor of Xanadu magazine and Pleasure Dome Press (1975), and originator of the Paumanok Poetry Award Competition, which he coordinated for seven years (1990-97). He has also been series editor of the Water Mark Poets of North America Book Award (1980-83), associate editor of The Drunken Boat, and poetry editor of Gaia, Cistercian Studies Quarterly, and the Journal of Genocide Studies, and he is currently poetry editor of New Works Review and a consultant in poetry to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

Among Fishman's most recent awards and honors are the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association's Long Island Poet of the Year Award (2006) and the 2007 Paterson Award for Literary Excellence. His books include Mortal Companions (Pleasure Dome Press, 1977), Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust (Texas Tech University Press, 1991), and The Death Mazurka (Texas Tech, 1989), an American Library Association Outstanding Book of the Year that was nominated for the 1990 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. His most recent poetry collections are Country of Memory (Uccelli Press) and 5,000 Bells (Cross-Cultural Communications), both 2004, and Chopin's Piano (Time Being Books, 2006). --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 426 pages
• Publisher: Texas Tech University Press (January 15, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896722155
• ISBN-13: 978-0896722156
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,823,871 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Compilation of Unforgetable Work, October 14, 2007

By 

Sandra Margulius "Cinderella5001" (Milwaukee, Wi) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust (revised, second edition) (Paperback)

As a contributor to the anthology, I am astounded as to the diversity of the poets who have contributed, as well as the excellence of the quality of their work. I am honored to be among the very well known poets, such as Alexie, Levertov, Forche, Piercy, Stern, but am just as humbled to be among those lesser known, but excellent writers, whose words are just as powerful and moving.
A wonderful addition to your library on Jewish studies, as well as a powerful teaching tool for Jewish history, or Jewish writings.

Sandra Cohen Margulius

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A testament, October 14, 2004

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust (Hardcover)

Charles Fishman is to be given tremendous credit for the dedication diligence and generosity it took to assemble this anthology . His openness to the work of other poets, and his deep feeling for the suffering of the Holocaust combine here to bring a large and varied collection of writing.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Astounding, October 30, 2007

By 

Alyssa A. Lappen (Earth) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust (revised, second edition) (Paperback)

My personal poetry collection includes hundreds of volumes, but this October 2007 2nd edition of Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust is by far one of the best.

From Marjorie Agosin, the Chilean daughter of Jewish refugees from Odessa and Vienna, to John Ciardi, Anthony Hecht, Philip Levine and Barnett Zumoff, the famed New York Albert Einstein professor of endocrinology, the sheer brilliance of dozens of poets in 478 pages defies description.

What's almost as amazing, though, is the labor and love that went into an almost letter-perfect copy--with not a single typographical error yet found in hundreds of poems, footnotes, biographical notes and acknowledgments. Without a doubt, this 630-plus page compilation of Holocaust poems is the most remarkable literary feat of this memorial genre I'm privileged to own.

I am greatly honored to have two poems in this volume, beside those of several good poet friends, but most remarkably, hundreds more whose work I revere from a distance.

One cannot adequately praise Charles Ades Fishman, a poet with stunning style, for the years of work he has invested in this remarkable collection of American poets writing on the Holocaust.

Buy it.

--Alyssa A. Lappen