Written in the Dark
Five Siege Poets
The depraved nature of the two-and-a-half-year siege of a cultured European metropolis further confirms the Nazis’ unmatched penchant for evil. One million citizens died of starvation, bitter cold, relentless shelling. During the war, official Soviet ideology championed courage and willpower, and did not allow any written acknowledgment of the siege’s brutal reality. So the secret poetry that was written during those years was hidden away, and only when the archives were opened during the era of perestroika did much of the work in this collection get discovered.
Much too skinny creatures
With pale white features,
With every day, more bitter,
Their feathers stick out further.
Shrewdly, miserly, they peck
At the grain, the every speck
That God in His strict passion
Sends down in strict rations
Like a daydream of a dinner
To the orphans and the sinners…
A woe-begotten tale they lived
Once upon a time, as if.
Reviewed by
Matt Sutherland
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
