Bless, Duncan.
You will not be disappointed. It is a remarkable play and a suitable tribute to a remarkable woman and an outstanding poet working in a very particular, yet hugely significant, field for the experience of the twentieth century. The audience for its first outing in York Theatre Royal in April, which included a number of
kindertransport survivors were in audible trouble - and not from any of the hackneyed causes you might suspect - but from the true individuality of her story of survival in Britain.
It is a measure, perhaps, of the neglect into which her work has fallen that the tenth item to come up on a Google search on her poems - once lionised by Gollancz and others - is this very thread on the Sphere. Here's a link - sorry it's a bit long winded, as I don't seem to have the knack of these splendidly short ones which you and others produce - voiceseducation.org/content/poetry-kindertransport
However, do beware of the 'biog' details on a lot of the web stuff, as it is often hagiographically wrong e.g. she actaully died in a London hospital not in either romantic Cornwall nor in inspiring Israel!
For everyone's benefit I hope it will not seem otiose to quote here her most famous poem.
I Was Not There
The morning they set out from home
I was not there to comfort them
the dawn was innocent with snow
in mockery it is not true
the dawn was neutral was immune
their shadows threaded it too soon
they were relieved that it had come
I was not there to comfort them
One told me that my father spent
a day in prison long ago
he did not tell me that he went
what difference does it make now
when he set out when he came home
I was not there to comfort him
and now I have no means to know
of what I was kept ignorant
Both my parents died in camps
I was not there to comfort them
I was not there they were alone
my mind refuses to conceive the life
the death they must have known
I must atone because I live
I could not have saved them from death
the ground is neutral underneath
Every child must leave its home
time gathers life impartially
I could have spared them nothing since
I was too young - it is not true
they might have lived to succour me
and none shall say in my defense
had I been there to comfort them
it would have made no difference
Even The Voices project, to which the above is a link, totally messes up her versification and, unbelivably, misses out a vital "not" in L4 of S4.
The above is correct.
So try the above or....
www.naomis-books.com/Karengershon.html - a site run by her younger daughter Naomi Shmuel. Both her daughters, Stella Tripp the artist and her literary executor from England and Naomi from Irsael, are travelling to Edinburgh for the play and will be on hand to talk about her work.
If there is further interest on this thread, I'd be happy to feed in a list of her works, which included factual, novels and autobiographical work along with six volumes of poetry - most of which can still be readily got via abe books etc.
This is a poetic lady really worth the knowing and thinking on. See you in Edinburgh - first at your show on the 6th and then at the play.
Best,
Nigel
Karen Gershon
Linear Mode
