i sing my way through centuries
dear ones,
i’m inside the afterbirth of ethnic cleansing— rummaging through meadows in Sabile, Latvia. nectar, dew, and endless dusk. luscious and green, every wildflower is drunk on sunlight.
brutal and beautiful, my great-grandfather’s village.
brutal and beautiful, my anguished homeland.
this area of Latvia used to be 90% Jewish; now it’s 100% Latvian.
under German occupation, the last Jews of Sabile were executed by gunfire into a pit. take out the Jewish and put in the Latvian. i trudge up the hill to our abandoned cemetery. birdsong merry-go-rounds with sound.
there is no one left to tend the gravestones, no one left to clear a path.
a single stork clicks her beak over the cemetery walls, built in the late 1600’s.
she squawks overhead in the pine tree. i spread my wings.
for hours on end, i rub charcoal on stone, trying to read an invisible alphabet.
the joy i feel in this task is unparalleled.
i sing my way through centuries. name after name after name after name.
when i breathe in, the birch trees tremble. when i breathe out, billowing wind.
all times touch in my body.
our communion is bi-directional.
my ancestors hum: you look at us, it changes us. we look at you, it changes you.
yours in poems,
emet
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poems:
From the First, the Body was Dirt by Camille T. Dungy
From the River to the Sea by Samer Abu Hawwash; translated by Huda Fakhreddine
A Peacock in Spring by Joyelle McSweeney
Toni Morrison’s 1993 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech— I continue to return to this incredible speech and the way in which Morrison describes the task of language, the task of a writer.
Exile Time by Ryan Ruby in the Berlin Review (essay)
upcoming events:
i have the honor of joining curator and researcher Pia Chakraverti-Wuerthwei for a listening session at migas, a community bar in Wedding, Berlin.
Pia and i will sample tracks from Hurray For The Riff Raff’s new album, The Past is Still Alive, while weaving a conversation about lineage, land, and listening. i’ll speak about my residency in Sabile, Latvia, and the work of singing through centuries.
Please join us on July 24th, Lindower Strasse 19, 13347 Berlin.