“Dear Beatriz,
Your texts are very touching
and truly poetic about a subject which is not easy to write about. And it
is not only a Jewish pain but also a human tragedy.
Thanks for sharing those
texts with me. Warmly"
THE EXPOSITION
“Only work will set you
free”
(Legend about the
concentration camp on Auschwitz)
They got a ticket to the
following station. The driver treated them kindly.
They exchanged opinions, memories and a near
future. They arrived. The melancholic notes enveloped the morning fog.
Soon, the tasks in the
atelier would get started. The music was sliding smoothly. They undressed; the
hygiene was the fundamental discipline for that face of art. The showers would
help too.
They were accompanied until
the vast exposition, before the immense collage where there were dreams, bones,
illusions, fears, but no faces.
To the survivors of the
Holocaust
I’ve dreamt about you so much
These days
Of potage and bread
I’ve dreamt about you so
much
With the frost and the
famine
With chains lacerating the
ankles
With terror
settled in the shack
I’ve dreamt about you so
much
FREEDOM.
I WAS…
To the memory of Primo Levi
January
27th, 2006
I was in Auschwitz.
I gave birth to children
I gave birth to children
Of bitterness, pain and
horror
I walked barefoot
in the mud of a field with
mown flowers
like the fresh seeds
of our flocks
And today after 61 years
Of the camp liberation
I’m a shadow
A woman without face
Desolation and hunger
I…
I Was in Auschwitz.
The Sculptor
To the memory of Anna Frank
To possess a spoon-knife
is to become an avid sculptor.
You shall locate
A piece of brass and let it
rise
Not to waste
A drop of potage
And with the knife
We cut the bread
To trade it
For more useful things
Indeed, to possess a
spoon-knife
These days
Is certainly an art.
Numbers
To the memory of Itsjok Katzenelson
Don’t ask, don’t wait for an
answer
Before the “beasts” we are a
thing
A burden
That is hated and justified.
The shack is cold
Like winter out there.
Only the memory of homeland
Is warm and good to snooze
With that ancient flavour.
There’s no way out
Of these fields
But you can wait a
“selection”
To metamorphose into a bird
Or simply wait
A shot
At random.
Poland
The "Wolf" promulgates
“To design"
meticulously
the Treblinka camp
and the Stangl Nazi answers.
Countless souls
Lie at the end of the
“deliveries”
The curtain fell.
The work is not the same
But the atavism is still
valid
at other times
other areas
other stigmatas
other essences ...
which throughout the
centuries are
the enduring panacea of
Simon:
"I will never forget
you".
They dreamt that life was
flowing.
They woke up surrounded by
pogroms
Frost, glass, barbed fences
and torment.
Their names already swelled
the list of stiff beings.
She was born in autumn in La Plata, Argentina.
She is a member of the “Latin American Writers Association of California and International Chapter on the Internet”
(whose acronyms in Spanish are SELC and CII), California,
USA.
Books published:
“Perspectives” (1977)
“Collage of Five” (1981)
“Strange Lineage”(1984)
“Death wants…” (2003)
Her literary work is published in English and Portuguese in several
countries and in different anthologies in her native country and around the
world.
She has studied pottery and art.
She took part in the Underground Movement in the 70’s, collaborating
with the literary magazine “Machu Picchu”.
Nowadays, she publishes in digital and printed magazines in the United States, Canada,
Spain, Brazil, Venezuela,
Uruguay, Argentina,
among others.
Blog: Beatriz Iriart poeta
Poems in video: