Found poetry

An assignment from high school English class:

Night by Elie Wiesel “Found” Poetry

            “It was pitch dark. I could only hear the violin, and it was as though Juliek’s soul were the bow. He was playing his life. The whole of his life was gliding on the strings—his lost hopes, his charred past, his extinguished future. He played as he would never play again.

            “I shall never forget Juliek. How could I forget that concert, given to an audience of dead and dying men! To this day, whenever I hear Beethoven played my eyes close and out of the dark rises the sad, pale face of my Polish friend, as he said farewell on his violin to an audience of dying men.

            “I do not know for how long he played. I was overcome by sleep. When I awoke, in the daylight, I could see Juliek opposite me, slumped over, dead. Near him lay his violin, smashed, trampled, a strange overwhelming little corpse.”

The Final Symphony

The dark pitch of the violin

Playing his life

His soul

The bow gliding as an extinguished farewell

Farewell to dead men

Dying men

Charred and lost men

Me

Juliek

A pale face

Rising out of the dark

As Beethoven said farewell

To his charred audience

The daylight awoke

Overwhelming

Trampled

Dead