Yevgeny Yevtushenko ~

† April 1, 2017

BABI YAR

by Yevgeny Yevtushenko

No monument stands over Babi Yar.

A steep cliff only, like the rudest headstone.

I am afraid.

Today, I am as old

As the entire Jewish race itself . . .

At 7:45 in the Morning ~

The highway is buzzing with cars heading off at high speed to make it to the place of work with all the people who are helping to hold this world together.

Cosmic Reverberations ~

Today at a funeral while they played Mozart's Clarinet Concerto K 622 Adagio and the world stood still . . .

Seeing in Darkness ~

To look up into the sky late at night and see the radiant stars . . . and then orient myself in the deep cosmos.

Beacon Light ~

Americans, the President said: "make no concealment of the fact that we want wealth, but there are many other things we want more. We want peace and honor, and that charity which is so strong as element of all civilization. The chief ideal of the American people is idealism. I cannot repeat too often that America is a nation of idealists. That is the only motive to which they ever give any strong and lasting reaction."

                                            President Calvin Coolidge 1923-29

Farewell Address ~

He made me feel proud to be an American and taught me, more than any other, what it meant.

Progressing ~

Went back to my old seminary where four teenage years of intense living took place. There I found only a bare hill with grass going on it. The building has been torn down, deemed useless.

New Experience ~

It was a happy dream . . . I was standing in front of a grade-school class and a boy didn't know the German word for "page". "Oh, that was the very first word we leaned in Chapter One of our German book last year," I said. And all those little girls and boys lit up and smiled with such glowing faces, the likes of which I had never seen before.

God's Will Works ~

It is in silence, the old monk said, like when the sun rises, or in the silent chamber of the heart that God's will works.

Crucial Decisions ~

All the really important decisions in life-- I had no real knowledge what it was all about: Priesthood, Marriage, Children. All a blind leap.

Grief in Our Town ~

Not enough room in the church for all his friends, many stood outside. Lukas was 18 years old, had just acquired his driver's licence. He was driving to the train station to pick up a friend when he lost control . . .

Autumn Yearning ~

I see little birds flying south in clusters. It is raining and cold. How will they ever make it over the Alps?

Classroom ~

I taught her in the fifth grade. She wrote saying I made a great impression on her for the rest of her life, for I had told her once to brush her teeth every day. She had done that and has a set of teeth to this day that everyone admires.

Goings-on ~

I heard someone comparing the catastrophic political atmosphere with John of the Cross's Dark Night of the Soul. He saw it positively, as laying the ground for a spiritual recovery, once everything has been reduced to nothing . . .

De Diligendo Deo ~

God is Great— What do you do if your notion of God and Jesus conflict? The former seems for the most part confined by the latter.

 

Coming into Focus ~

With 80-plus finally coming to understand what a momentous, catastrophic event the First World War was.

Memory Fading ~

. . . Now I know why mother was irritated every time I wanted to play our do-you-remember game . . .

You are what you will ~

. . . I discover that it was my desires that regulated my advancement/lack of advancement in life. I never got beyond what I desired.