Nelly Sachs – The Consolations of Writing

40 Days of Mercy Week 5: Mercy out of dust

I’ve wanted for a long time to write a series of reflections on the poetry of Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Nelly Sachs. That will have to wait for another time, but this week’s poem comes from a sequence of hers called “In the Habitations of Death”, where imagery of death, dust, longing and encounteringContinue reading “40 Days of Mercy Week 5: Mercy out of dust”

From dust and ashes (After a poem by Nelly Sachs)

We travel through cosmic debris. All the time a war wages – starshower missiles, misguided asteroids. The mayhem is our doing. Harmony – meant to be sung – ended with us. Begin again with us. From ashes we stand, cupped hands opened to receive, to re-enter Your orbit. (Inspired by this translation of Nelly Sachs:Continue reading “From dust and ashes (After a poem by Nelly Sachs)”