Five Poems by Duane L. Herrmann with Book Review by LB Sedlacek

 

HUMAN TRAIT 

 

Take a human trait, 

genetic most especially: 

colour of eyes, 

hair texture, 

or genealogy, 

and label it “evil,’ 

no matter that 

it cannot be changed, 

then persecute, 

harass and even kill 

those who cannot escape 

who they are. 

It’s a human thing to do. 

Or, is it? 

All are created by God 

as “flowers of one garden” 

and “leaves of one tree.” 

To be fully human.

 

 

 

NIGHT OF GLASS 

 

Broken glass    

filled the streets   

dignity destroyed    

and livelihoods. 

Thousand years of culture burned   

in one planned  

“random” riot – 

government approved. 

Barbarity arose    

against imagined enemies    

who were not. 

Broken glass    

shattered lives    

terror reigned    

against helpless millions – 

nations stood unmoving. 

Never again.  Never…     

NEVER AGAIN!

 

 

 

IN ORDER 

 

It was so orderly –    

so normal that way,    

yet so HUGE! 

Thousands and thousands    

of people here. 

Processing was efficient,    

orderly,    

organized,    

recorded,    

documented,   

governmental,    

official. 

Barracks in rows    

of rows and rows. 

Lines were orderly –    

people waited patiently. 

How could you realize    

we all waited to die?

 

 

 

KITCHEN CHORES 

 

On arrival 

at the camp 

separated 

from my mother, 

from all I knew –

never to see again. 

Assigned kitchen duty, 

I survived 

stealing food. 

Sometimes 

ordered 

to fertilize 

the gardens 

with ashes 

containing 

bits of bone 

and 

human teeth.

 

 

 

DEATH DENIED 

 

Separated from his family 

enslaved, 

due to birth, 

he was forced labour 

to dig the hole 

and bury. 

Man distraught 

threw himself 

into the grave 

when he saw the bodies 

of his wife and daughters there. 

“NO!” 

Nazi officer commanded. 

“You will not die 

until I say you will,” 

and ordered him pulled out 

to finish filling 

that mass grave.

These five poems are from Duane's book: "No Known Address” by Duane L. Herrmann, Poetica Publications, Copyright 2020. I have the rights.

“No Known Address”

by Duane L. Herrmann

Poetica Publications

Copyright 2020

Reviewed by LB Sedlacek

LB Sedlacek I paint with words, swim & read too! Award winning Short Story Author & Poet

This Holocaust poems collection from Herrmann is “shared in the hope of raising awareness” per the author.  He also states that the events he writes about are true. This is a thought-provoking book of poems with a short story also included.

In the book’s “Introduction” it specifies that each of these poems “is a prayer, a prayer that never again will one part of the human race condemn another and organize their extinction.” The poems are written in forms of nine lines or multiples of nine. The explanation for this is that the number nine is symbolic for the author stating that “it is the largest single digit and therefore a symbol of the possible unity of the human race.”

The book opens with this poem:

WE CAN…

“Take one planet

the only one we know

treasure it, respect it,

help it heal.

Take one people,

one human race,

the only one we have,

cherish each one, each person,

each child a seed

of the future….”

This collection delves into the depths of this horrible time in human history and experience with an unflinching gaze. Herrmann’s poetry is raw with its certain honesty. He shines a striking gaze onto these powerful and intense situations from which he’s created grounded and accessible poetry.

From the poem:

ZEROED OUT

“I have no ancestors:

no parents,

no aunts or uncles,

no grandparents.

No one.

Once upon a time,

when I was young

I had them all –

then I had to run.

The rest were taken….”

His poems evoke universality as well as flow with a bittersweet imagery of what was a defining reality. He soars with his direct clarity and lyrical grace to illuminate connections and shared emotions that resonate with us all.

This poetry book contains an atmosphere of the fleeting yet life changing nature of the past. And, it offers a shining light on the hope for the future.

Duane L. Herrmann, internationally published, award-winning poet and historian, has work in print and on-line: Midwest Quarterly, Little Balkans Review, Flint Hills Review, Manifest West, Inscape, Gonzo Press, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, over one hundred other publications, over sixty anthologies, plus a sci fi novel. With branches of his family here before the revolution, and a Native branch even longer, he writes from, these perspectives. 

His full-length collections of poetry include: Prairies of Possibilities, Ichnographical, Praise the King of Glory, No Known Address, Remnants of a Life, Family Plowing, and Zephyrs of the Heart. His poetry has received the Robert Hayden Poetry Fellowship, inclusion in American Poets of the 1990s, Map of Kansas Literature, Kansas Poets Trail, and others. This, despite an abusive childhood embellished by dyslexia, ADHD, cyclothymia, an anxiety disorder, a form of mutism, and now, PTSD. He has carried baby kittens in his mouth, pet snakes, and held conversations with owls, but is careful not to anger them! He was surprised to find himself on a farm in Kansas, and is still trying to make sense of that, but has grown fond of grass waving under wind, trees, and the enchantment of moonlight.