Structures and histories of the shape of ‘Drafts’
Here, I thought I’d offer an essayistic narrative — by asking how and why Drafts was shaped as it was. What information could I give as a poet by exploring my primary moments of choice and understanding from the 25-year experience of writing one contemporary long poem?
Originally delivered as one of two Plenary lectures for the conference The Modernist Long Poem and Its Discontents, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, September 20, 2024.
The killing of the Filreis family
At Treblinka
From the Yad Vashem archives in Israel, here are names of some of the Filreis family who were killed by the Germans during World War II. Most of them were exterminated at Treblinka:
Filreiss, Benek
Koldra, Lea, born 1881
Szejnfuks, Manja, born 1907
Akerman, Haya**
Filreis, Genia, born 1915
Filries, Szimon, born 1915
Filries, Max, born 1900
Filries Tauba, born 1895
Filries, Khaia
All were from Warsaw, Poland. I’m guessing that “Filreiss” is a real alternative spelling and that “Filries” is a mistake in transcription at some point (these are just guesses). The names were submitted by Mrs. Idia Kcefner (I don’t know who she is) in 1957, by Mr. Moshe’ Koldra (ditto) in 1956, and by Zalman Akerman** in 1999. For more about Zalman Akerman’s story of survival, go HERE.