{"id":586,"date":"2022-05-07T00:41:25","date_gmt":"2022-05-07T00:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/hromada\/?p=586"},"modified":"2022-05-07T00:49:43","modified_gmt":"2022-05-07T00:49:43","slug":"for-ukraine%ef%bf%bc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/hromada\/2022\/05\/07\/for-ukraine%ef%bf%bc\/","title":{"rendered":"For Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lily Wood<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When February\u2019s last courtier stood<\/p>

Crescendoing in gypsum declarations,<\/p>

the power of her fallen majesty,<\/p>

\u00a0an elegy for February.<\/p>

Where an arid westerly wind<\/p>

Rose aghast over a bruised purple tundra<\/p>

When the city wintered in long silent rooms<\/p>

And hollow eyed militia cowered<\/p>

\u00a0from Prometheus\u2019s trickster flame<\/p>

Iron boughs trembled under February’s<\/p>

brumal lash<\/p>

Distant strangers holding belladonna soaked helmets<\/p>

Offer hackneyed orations in dry-blood amphitheaters.<\/p>

And diplomats crow their hoarse yawp<\/p>

Over inky rooftops<\/p>

February lifts her ancient wintery head.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Viewing the brutal attack that Russia has forced upon Ukraine, I found myself at an impasse. Watching Putin\u2019s army bomb hospitals, schools, bloodied bodies of young children, the elderly brandishing Molotov cocktails, heaving masses crowded on trains, the young men and women who proudly don yellow armbands to fight for their freedom and their country.  I am shaken profoundly by the horrific nature of Putin\u2019s ongoing war. When I heard Boris Pasternak\u2019s poem<\/a> about the month of February in the year 1912,<\/em> I was moved immeasurably by his solitary grief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWhere rooks resembling charcoaled pears<\/p>

Crash into puddles thousand strong<\/p>

Down from the trees, their arid sorrow<\/p>

Cascades into the eyes\u2019 abyss.<\/p>

Thawed patches show their black in splotches,<\/p>

Wind corrugated by the cries,<\/p>

Precipitous\u2014and all the truer\u2014<\/p>

Verses compose, aghast, in sobs\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Although written in 1912, Pasternak\u2019s poem spoke to me about the tragic invasion that began on February 24 2022.  Usually sticking to the comforting prose of Elliot, Thomas, Yeats, Ginsberg, Dylan, and Zimmerman,  I was dumbstruck by Pasternak\u2019s poetry. Haunting and feverish Pasternak emits total control over his literary form, displaying a deathfuge of thawing earth, and coagulating crowds. His verse was a perfect mirror to the images that tear across our media, images of children at borders, of the Russian tanks emblazoned with the frightening Z<\/strong> moving through desecrated cities.  Knowing that his family was originally from Odessa, I viewed Pasternak\u2019s writing as prayer, showing Ukraine\u2019s suffering to the rest of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lily Wood<\/strong> is a freshman at Eugene Lang College at The New School and a writer from Boston. She hopes to one day understand what Bob Dylan is singing about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n
(c) Zaneta Antosik<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lily Wood When February\u2019s last courtier stood Crescendoing in gypsum declarations, the power of her fallen majesty, \u00a0an elegy for February. Where an arid westerly wind Rose aghast over a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":340,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73984],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resistance-humor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/hromada\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/hromada\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/hromada\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/hromada\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/users\/340"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/hromada\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/hromada\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":601,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/hromada\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions\/601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/hromada\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/hromada\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-test.newschool.edu\/hromada\/wpjson\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}