Special new poetry collection in three languages to be launched in Mayo and Latvia
AT a time of horror and revulsion at events and atrocities in Ukraine, Noel Lyons and Skarleta Feierabends of the Latwest Association in Claremorris are launching their poetry collection in three languages. It is called Voices on the Bridge; Balsis Uz Tilta in Latvian; and Glórtha ar an ndroichead as Gaeilge.
As hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are being deported to Russia the darkness of the gulags is rumoured to be returning as Putin has previously stated that it is time to repopulate Siberia.
The Latwest publication contains a commemoration to the victims of mass deportation under Stalin in 1940 and 1949 to the gulags in the wasteland of Siberia. The innocent victims from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine were among millions condemned to cruel and barbaric treatment.
Some of the surviving children still living in Latvia have described their experiences to Noel and Skarleta.
Described at the time as Nazis and Fascists, most were not politically or militarily involved but were plucked from the streets and their homes to fill quotas. Some were brought to crude deserted villages. Others forced out of the trains in the wilderness where many died of hunger and exposure to the freezing temperatures. The cattle truck carriages were packed and the adults put the children on their shoulders so they could breathe.
A small number survived and returned to their homelands after the death of Stalin.
The poem by Noel and Skarleta called Road of Emptiness seeks to supply hope to the children from the perspective of their distraught parents in their darkest dilemma.
Voices on the Bridge - Balsis Uz Tilta - Glórtha ar an ndroichead will be launched in Latvia on Saturday next, April 23, and in Claremorris on May 14.
Road of Emptiness
The small birds of Siberia
are guided by the stars.
They wander in the Wintertide
to find out who they are.
They leave behind the loved ones
they have known.
Who wonder where their little birds
have flown.
The ship that sails in darkness
on its journey.
Must ride the wind
and waves
it cannot see.
Await the dawn in hunger and
in yearning.
Until the light of morning
sets it free.
The Road of Emptiness is
a pathway through our pain.
Fear and loneliness are
just stops along the way.
Mountains we must climb
Pathways we don't know
Struggles we may find are
the gardens where we grow.
The snows that fall in Winter
feed the Springtide
Discordant notes of childhood
travel past.
Become the melody of our
wandering.
That light the path of courage
that will last.
The waters of Siberia serve well
their Winter chill.
Majestic mounds of solitude
stand tall and proud and still.
Like pyramids of stone
can't understand.
The tides of time will
turn them into sand.
The waterfall of time
is ever turning.
The cycle of emotion in its mass.
The prophet in his pain
is ever learning.
To dry the icy tears of
broken glass.
When light goes out
we live within its shadow.
We sow a secret garden
in our hearts
Filled with just the seconds
of a moment.
In dust or death
we never are apart.