Wandering Hearts (A Poem about the Holocaust)



A spirit established, a heart set in stone
lets citizens know that they're never alone
but something occurred on that day in the past
with eyes rimmed red, screaming
a breaking of glass
and Kristallnacht marks that split second the best
when six million hearts
were ripped out of their chests.

Thrumming and beating, but deathly confused
the souls of these people were beaten, abused
thrown into the masses of featureless faces
herded like cattle
toward inhumane places
where all they were sure of and all they had learned
was taken away
to be laughed at and burned.

Colder than iron, as weak as the dead
the hands of the captives turned lifeless, it's said
for nothing remained behind layers of skin
to maintain the life force
that flickered within
and soon, men and women were primitive forms
robbed of the strength
that protects from the storm.

Only years after the Jews were set free
did wandering hearts cross the graveyards and see
the damage inflicted by ignorant rivals
a torrent of clarity
raw as survival
and though they'd been wounded, and tortured, and burned
the victims' identities
slowly returned.
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Submitted on May 02, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

57 sec read
41

Quick analysis:

Scheme AAXXXXXX BBCDCEXE FFGXGXXX HHXHDEXE
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,081
Words 190
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8

Joelle Nanula

Hey guys!My name is Joelle, and I am an eighth-grader living in Southern California. I have multiple interests, including music, linguistics, and writing, but poetry is by far my favorite. I have been frustrated for a long time by my inability to achieve anything in the poetry realm; I'm one of those teens that has a billion goals but doesn't have the work ethic to reach them; so I'm hoping some of my poems will be found here. As for my flaws, I'm terrible at sports, math is my abhorrence, and I wouldn't be able to tell Japan from Africa on a map. (Aka, I'm horrific at geography and navigation.) Thanks so much for reading! Love ya! Also, if Nick Jonas ever reads this, you're the coolest and most self-actualized person on Earth!Notes About My Poetry:1. "Traces" and "Wandering Hearts" are by far the best poems in my collection thingy, so read 'em!2. There are a bunch of short, meaningless poems here too, so skip past them until you reach the good ones.3. I did take some leaps in posting my more private poems here. Please be sensitive.4. "Always a Choice" is dedicated to all the girls out there who are feeling insecure, or have daunting things going on in their lives right now. I know a couple of people who inspired this poem, and I hope they will understand its meaning and find the courage to carry on.5. I am going to be frequently updating this page, but since only fifteen poems can remain here at a time, I have chosen "Always a Choice," "These Sunsets," "One Memory," "Girl With The Blue Barrette," "Traces," "Wandering Hearts," "What Is Life?," "Forces Within," "The Test of Time," "Snapshots," and "Another's Skin" to be my eleven permanent poems. Therefore, the other four will always be rotating. Gracias!New Additions: - "One," which recently replaced "Flying Away," is about the deep, spiritual way in which every living creature is connected, no matter how removed from one another we may seem.- "Like Starfall" makes absolutely zero sense; don't worry, I'm not dumb. It's just an outpouring of thoughts, and mostly, the emotion you get when sitting alone under the stars and breathing in the clear, cool, delicious air, and you feel like your stomach is flying, and you almost start to cry a little bit because the night is so unnaturally beautiful. You know what I'm saying? Yeah I know, it's a totally weird poem. I'm not gonna leave it up here for very long.- "The Painter" is sort of a deep-ish poem about how, even when rejected by the rest of the world, a person can be happy. Such is the case with the painter, who is ultimately either very old or mentally impaired, but is still content to sit in his yard and paint despite what others think. more…

All Joelle Nanula poems | Joelle Nanula Books

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