Lidice Lives
By Susan D. Harris
Lidice floats high above the clouds.
People scurry,
laughing, working, loving.
None are torn from each other’s arms;
White stone houses stand defiantly.
Sheep graze the fields
Wheat still grows;
Saint Martina’s bold pear tree
stretches her limbs,
yawning in the warm June sun.
Plato’s Forms and God’s universe
Do not contradict –
But ensure existence
On planes we cannot see.
There is no Divine Power that would allow
Lidice to be no more.
No man can take away what God has given.
The grass and flowers and children grow –
Preserved intact
With every eye that beheld them.
Every demonic spell
Enchanting the world today
Is broken with the victory
Of these two truths:
He is Risen
and
Lidice Lives.
~END~
A new Lidice has risen from the ashes. It is a symbol of the common need for all people of the world to live together in friendship and peace. If Lidice dies again, our civilization will also perish.”
Dr. Barnett Strauss, 1963.
In support of the new sculpture in Stoke-on-Trent, being unveiled with the people of the “new” Lidice, I have been honored to have my poem for Lidice featured on their website.
The sculpture will contain a “miner’s tag” with the initials of every person who promised to tell TWO people the story of Lidice. I am proud to have my tag among those.
