A Trio of Poets Treat a Throng @ The New City Library

BY BARRY WARNER 

Recently, members of the Ramapough Poets including Harry Waitzman, Diane Weber and Marty Levine read ‘free verse poetry’ that does not have a set pattern of rhyme or rhythm. When this type of poetry is read aloud, the listeners can hear the words as spoken music, which captures images and conveys emotions through the use of lyrical phrases.

Harry Waitzman, a Rockland County Times poetry columnist since 2003, was raised on a farm in Rockland, is a Navy veteran, practiced law for 35 years and served as a Clarkstown Justice for 10 years. His poem ‘The Dust of Angels’ (part 4) was set in 1946 after the World War II Holocaust, as survivors of the concentration camps travelled to start new lives in the Holy Land. It was a tribute to the 1980 Nobel Prize winning poet Czeslaw Milosz, who witnessed the German Invasion of Poland, Anti-Semitism, the burning of the Warsaw Ghetto and worked with Jewish partisans at the beginning of the Holocaust.

Following are segments from the poem:

‘Milosz, smoke rises from stoves in our D.P. Camp

as showers spritz water on kids. 

Graveless bodies dance atop the ship’s holds

whirling on shoulders of survivors.

The old steamship crosses the Mediterranean

this new ark brings remnants to the Holy Land,

not lions or giraffes but survivors with children.’

Diane Weber read her poems ‘Body language’ and ‘Overheard at Starbucks’ plus Marty Levine read his poems ‘Photos About My Father’ and ‘Columbus Day Chatter.’ For further information about The Ramapough Poets call 845-268-7700.