Night Poems

In their unit on Judaism, students in Mrs. Kroondyk’s Comparative World Religions 12/Religious Studies 11 class created found poems using Elie Wiesel’s novel, Night. Eliezer “Elie" Wiesel was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. His novel Night is based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps during the second world war. Students’ goal was to rearrange words, phrases, and images taken directly from his novel to express ideas surrounding Jewish beliefs, the strength of faith, and the impacts of the Holocaust. 

Without Any Hope

by Luc Primeau

A few small white clouds in the sky,

The morning star shone,

A summer sun

In the beginning there was faith,

Which is dangerous

Some invite sorrow, 

others joy, 

some both.

I needed to give some meaning to my survival

And so I persevered

I was afraid

I had many things to say, 

I did not have the words to say them

And yet somehow I did not lose my mind

I no longer pleaded for anything

Those who kept silent yesterday

will remain silent tomorrow

I was one of them

I shall never forgive myself

For God's sake, where is God?

My eyes had opened and I was alone, 

Alone in a world without God, 

without man

Without love or mercy

Why did I pray?

Why did I live? 

Why did I breathe?

It was close to midnight

The race toward death had begun

An open tomb

Rings of black smoke unfurl in the sky.

The Darkness Before Dawn

by Xavier Ryan

Men to the left, women to the right

the countless separations on a single fiery night

For, despite all my attempts to articulate the unspeakable,

"it" is still not right.

He just kept repeating that it was all over for him, that he could no longer fight

The SS had flown into a rage and was striking my father

I remember that night,

the most horrendous of my life

In the beginning there was faith

until the darkness, the death of my father

Without mercy or love

I heard his voice, yet I did not move.

Echoes in the Night

by Lyle Weitz

Silence falls, dreams shattered,

faces lost in smoke, shadows loom.

Flames hunger, faith devours,

cries echo, silence broken.

History's burden, too heavy to bear,

ashes whisper, shadows linger.

Dreams haunted by echoes,

voices from the past,

speak through the darkness,

reminding us of what was lost.

I Praise Your Name 

by Josh Mills

In the beginning there was faith—which is childish

trust—which is vain

and illusion—which is dangerous

We believed in God, trusted in man, and lived with the illusion

Days went by. Then weeks and months.

But I have faith

I knew that I must bear witness.

Deep inside me

I praise Your name

Every one of us carries a reflection of God's image.

Blessed be God's name.

All of creation bears witness to the Greatness of God

Our lives no longer belong to us alone ; 

they belong to all those who need us desperately