These poems create a journey of illuminating unity. David Koenig's poems explore the renewing power of memory, of nature, and of love. Elegant and lyrical, Koenig commemorates the Holocaust, and celebrates the lives both of its victims, and of survivors like his parents, who escaped Vienna in 1939.
Gila Wertheimer
The Chicago Jewish Star:
"The Ladder of Memory is, paradoxically, an expression of love ... there is pain, there is terror, but humanity triumphs, and in the end there is hope and optimism."
Karl Shapiro
Winner of Pulitzer Prize for Poetry:
"A very strong volume and one that will be well received by poets and general readers ... and extremely honest poet, a very rare thing."
Native Child Of Light
The broad brim
Of father's
Forties hat
Cast a slanted shadow
Across his refugee eyes,
Eyes to me
Like the sun
Covered by cloud,
I could not seem
To make my father proud.
Escaping them,
I contrived
A world of light,
A child alone,
Under the Midwestern sky,
When on my own
The sun did shine,
My father's shadow
Could not reason
Or rhyme
The way a bird could,
Or define a butterfly
As did I,
As a native child
Of light.
The Ladder Of Memory
Remember what you said
In the morning,
Remember the promises
You made
In your prayers
When you first awaked,
Remember that you made
Promises to God
And to yourself
When you were a child,
In the early morning
Of your life,
When you walked outside
When your heart was wild,
And you prophesied:
Some day I will climb
A ladder to the sky,
Some day I will wear a coat
Like a butterfly.
Some day I will grow
As tall as a tree,
Some day I will carry water
To the highest leaf,
Some day I will sink
My roots down in the earth,
And not the strongest wind
Will pull me from my berth.
Some day I will spread
My roots so wide,
That they will span the planet
And come out the other side.
Remember what you said
In the morning,
Remember the promises
You made
When you first awaked.
Remember you are always
Near the morning
Of your life.
Step onto
The ladder of memory,
And start to climb.