Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
W.B Yeats
My inspiration for this poem came relatively, to a tragic date in history: known as the Warsaw up-rising and the burning of Warsaw, during the holocaust, in Poland, 1943. The up-rising begin in a Polish ghetto, where, when the Jewish people inside where being “evacuated” they refused to be hulled off, ‘like sheep to the slater’ and rallied together to fight back.
The ghetto residence, surprisingly manage to hold of the Nazis’ for about a month, from April 19 – May 16. Which was far unanticipated, saying how the Nazi’s far outnumbered them in terms of manpower and weaponry.
Thought, sadly May 16 was their down-fall. The Nazi’s ended up firmly taking hold of the Ghetto and dragging off an estimated 50,000 fighters to extermination or labor camps. Though, some of the fighters managed to escape through the sewer, where they joined Partisans…others committed suicide, instead of being hulled off to death camps.
Proximately 7,000 Jewish lives where taken that day, thought the Nazi’s didn’t get away clean, it is said, that they too lost several hundred men in the uprising.
After the up-rising, Hitler and his SS, decided to make an example of the city, which they had long since selected for major reconstruction as part of their planned ‘Germanization’ of Central Europe. (Ironically, the destruction Warsaw, had been planned even before the start of WWII. The uprisings was really, just a convenient excuse to burn it; like Helen of Troy.) Their big plan was to simply to, whip Warsaw of the face of the earth, and sadly….in the end they exceeded in wiping out a major majority of Poland’s capital. 80–90% of Warsaw’s buildings where deliberately demolished, burned, or stolen of an immense part of its cultural heritage.
Ann Frank, wrote her thoughts in her diary, on the eve of Warsaw’s destruction: “Almost all Warsaw is a sea of flames. To set houses afire is the surest way to deprive the insurgents of their hiding places. When we crush the uprising, Warsaw will get what it deserves – complete annihilation.”
Through, my poem I tried to being out the heart-wrenching and melancholic emotions, that would of been felt, by looking into the soul of an Anonymous, survivor, who fought with their life for freedom, against one man I called the ‘Dictator’.
It was a poem of guilt—a guilt that ate away at the soul with every heart beat of my survivor. A guilt so strong, it wooed this Anonymous character, to write a poem; so the world might look through Warsaw’s ash, and see streakers of the brave-hearted Warriors, living and dead; who fought for the purposes of freedom and unity.
For further information on Warsaw:
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/warsaw-ghetto-uprising
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_Warsaw
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto
—Joy Tiberend
Oh my goodness!
You don’t know how beautiful this is Girl! 😉😁♥️
Truly, you are an amazing and an artist at poetry and making us all feel the depths of emotion here! Reblogging!!
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The pictures are absolutely STUNNING and the beginning quote is one of my ultimate FAVORITES!! This just was so well done!!!
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Excellent post ma’am! We have to be vigilant. History is repeating itself.
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Very well done and beautiful poem!
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Thank, you Stevescountry, for your kind words!
Thanks, for commenting and checking out my post!
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Your sister Grace was so excited about your post I just had to check it out, glad I did! God bless!
Steve.
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Powerful words and reading about the history does sober one up – well done with this post
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Thank, you, Prior for your kind words and honest feedback!
Blessings. ♥️
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😊🙏🌸
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Grace Tiberand or Joy Tiberand a mild confusion. But excellent post moved by the poem, pictures and the story.
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Thanks, for the encouraging comment a honest feedback.
Oh, yes, sorry! MyLifeAsAPhotographer is my sister (Grace Tiberend) and I pinned her name below the image, because she kindly did the Photography for me…..sorry, it is a bit confusing….😬
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We’be got to stop confusing people! 😂🤪🤘🏻
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She also reposts’ my blogs, from time to time; so that could be a bit confusing too…
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This is in genuine thanks for choosing to follow at Newsspell, and it is heartening to observe someone still appreciates William Butler Yeats. Have a great weekend.
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Love your eye for history. It’s something sorely lacking in today’s world.
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Thank you so much for following my writings. I’m new to your site, and I like it.
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I’ve day-dreamed your poem a thousand times. Would I run? Would I try to take as many lives as I could until overwhelmed by many hateful men? Are they my neighbors? “The best lack all conviction….” Do some of the people I work with sit and watch, compassionless?
Are we too “civilized”? The land of Bach produced murderer-upon-murderer. Their smiles as they murder haunt me. “Is this who we are”, I ask myself?
But my daydream is not about Warsaw and it’s doomed,heroes. It is in the USA.
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Very good article, excellent read so I am going to reblog this for you.
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