A poet looks at the 20th Century

 I took a few minutes this evening to read, "Encounter" by Czeslaw Milosz and was once again moved by the heart of a young man who looked Evil in the eye and brought a response.  As  a Polish Poet he lived among the most abused people of the twentieth century. It  describes an encroaching darkness that was changing the face of Europe. A darkness referred to as- The Holocaust. The year was 1936 and he was only 25 years old.

Encounter

We were riding through frozen fields in a wagon at dawn.
A red wing rose in the darkness.

And suddenly a hare ran across the road.
One of us pointed to it with his hand.

That was long ago. Today neither of them is alive,
Not the hare, nor the man who made the gesture.

O my love, where are they, where are they going
The flash of a hand, streak of movement, rustle of pebbles.
I ask not out of sorrow, but in wonder.

- Czeslaw Milosz  (1936)

The following link takes you to an excellent lecture by Edward Hirsch about the poets of Post War Poland. 

http://youtu.be/2jcNX3KfM5o