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The Greatest Writer of the 20th Century

 The Greatest Writer of the 20th Century

 

Primo Levi wrote a book later in his life called Moments of Reprieve

I don’t know what to say


To a Catholic like me

Levi was a Saint


Man, to have so much honesty in you

That you can write about a moment of humanity

Within/Beyond an instrument-system of …-torture-annihilation-human abattoir-mass murder-genocide-evil-suffering of and beyond knowing-suffering-trauma-beyond words-…

 

I couldn’t finish the book


Because it asked the only question

I need to be answered


How a death camp survivor could admit to a moment of reprieve


No matter how minor and partial 


When a certain individual


Despite the unspeakable horror

Of the …


Some small moment of humanity


But True...

 


I won’t write the rest of the poem


If you haven’t read Primo Levi

& you pretend to be interested in Human Rights


Or Right & Wrong


Then read him --


--

 

Not this wishy washy

Soap suds

 

--


I believe him to be the greatest writer of the 20th Century

 


His belief in Universal siblinghood

Was superhuman

 

& eventually

Despite a life dedicated to Universal Love

& Human Truth


He suicided...

 

--


He attempted to survive the Holocaust

With all his might

 

He did survive the Holocaust


But he could no longer face the World's cruelty


With the trauma and clarity with which he saw


Anyway, suicide is always a point of mere conjecture 


—


Perhaps no one survives the Holocaust?

 

--


Though they live on...

 

--


Still, 

What would I know?


With my petty

So called ‘struggles’


--

 

Such Love

He had

 

Such moral clarity:

 

The Best

 

Better than Jesus*

 

Coz he wasn’t a god

 

He was a man

 

He was a man

 

The Best

 

 

Published & Copyright Malachi Doyle 2023.

But really what I’ve written is nothing.

Maybe I shouldn’t have written it.

 

“…Sound and fury

Signifying nothing...”


All I can offer is my remembrance & my heart & this keyboard & perhaps a rare moment of humanity.

 

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