One of the most surprising reactions from the project we have had is the quantity of wonderful poetry we have received. I can see real potential for a publication after the project is finished. Another great legacy of the story.
This first poem was sent to us by Susan. D. Harris. The poem is a beautiful and touching take on the Lidice tragedy from a religious viewpoint. It talks of Lidice Living on, on another plane of existence, just as it did before the atrocity.
Lidice Lives
By Susan D. Harris
Lidice floats
high above the clouds.
People scurry,
laughing, working, loving.
None are torn from each other’s arms;
White stone houses stand defiantly.
Sheep graze the fields
Wheat still grows;
Saint Martina’s bold pear tree
stretches her limbs,
yawning in the warm June sun.
Plato’s Forms and God’s universe
Do not contradict -
But ensure existance
On planes we cannot see.
There is no Divine Power that would allow
Lidice to be no more.
No man can take away what God has given.
The grass and flowers and children grow -
Preserved intact
With every eye that beheld them.
Every demonic spell
Enchanting the world today
Is broken with the victory
Of these two truths:
He is Risen
and
Lidice Lives.
This next poem is by Margaret Oldham and describes the devistating power of those that destroyed Lidice and the greater humanitarian power of those that stood against it.
Lidice shall Live
By Margaret Oldham
1942, The pain of War.
The horror of a plotted action to destroy,
An evil tyrant’s tirade
To kick out like a child in tantrum.
But these were no kiddies building blocks shattered,
Not faceless men, but living stones,
Men of flesh and blood and bones,
Each a Mothers son, a loved one lost.
The families torn apart, the children scattered,
So unbelievable the pain of loss,
The township gone, empty, nothing left
but bricks and soil and dross.
One man, Barnett Stross had a dream, to vanquish the evil done,
with the help of miners, Stokies every one.
Those people they took to their heart,
determined each to play their part.
Step by step, penny by penny, pound by pound
Their days wage, each they gave,
mounting to a goodly sum, to heal a broken town.
Walls to live again, stick by stick, brick by brick.
Foundations built, paths laid and roofs are set.
Roses are sent from round the world with love,
and to this day they still remain.
Thanks to the people of Stoke “Lidice lives again.”
I find it incredible how different people react to the story in prose and poem, it just shows that the plight of Lidice is just as rousing now as it ever was. We are all capable of feeling today what the miners felt 71 years ago.
To see the other poems written by members of the public and writers involved in the project tale a look at:
UNEARTHED Inspires
and
UNEARTHED Inspires continued