Ilse Weber
Her music seems to understand that it is the simplest of C major progressions which can show us the valley beyond the bridge, that songs without medicine might soothe if not heal, that only old-fashioned tonality might unlock the gates of Theresienstadt, that farewells are best phrased like blown kisses, concise gestures from railway cattle-trucks, that it is the womb-rocking of Wiegenlieder returning us to long-forgotten sleep that is most needed when children are praying beneath pesticide showers. Jonathan Taylor Poet's note: Ilse Weber (1903-44) was a Jewish poet, children’s writer, broadcaster, producer and musician. Along with her husband and second son, she was sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942, where she nursed sick Jewish children in the infirmary, and continued writing songs and poems. Eventually, she was voluntarily deported with many of her patients to Auschwitz, where she, her son and the children were gassed on arrival. Jonathan Taylor's books include the novel Melissa (Salt, 2015), the memoir Take Me Home: Parkinson's, My Father, Myself (Granta, 2007), and the poetry collection Musicolepsy (Shoestring, 2013). He is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Leicester in the UK. His website is www.jonathanptaylor.co.uk.
1 Comment
Corinne Fowler
11/18/2016 12:38:53 pm
Love the way the poem is published beneath the music. Evocative poem.
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