So somebody saw these things happening and chose instead to look at something else, some other kind of ning, a kind of burning that brings perhaps a reward of a sontan or feeling warm in the sun, while meanwhile other people were being burnt. And the opening poem, in a certain sense, is about the cowardice of people choosing not to see the awfulness about what's going on all round them. And the rest of the book, the book called death republic, is the story about what happens in a fictional city of people who choose not to listen to the voices of violence. This opening poem is the luxury of choosing not to see, and the rest of the book is a moral reckoning with choosing not to obey, choosing not to listen, choosing to find new methods of communication in order to move against actions

of oppression from an army.

So i think lots of people might know that piece of writing by martin nemuller, where he says, you know, first they came for the socialists, the trade unionists, the jews, and then me. Martin nmuller was german, he was luther an, and he was reckoning with his own inaction. He had actually initially supported hitler's rise to power. And then later on, turning against hitler, and leading to his own incarceration in concentration camps. He was one of the ones liberated, and he was a voice for penance for decades afterwards. It was so important cause he wasn't asking for forgiveness. He was, in a certain sense, highlighting his own complicity and saying, as a result of that, his ethical response was about penance. And i think what he's doing is highlighting, over and over again, in so many places of war, that while some people are wondering, will i survive the day, somebody else is wondering what colour to paint the kitchen, or whether they should re upholster the chairs, or what choice to make about holiday. There's a brutality about that. This poem isn't, i think, tying to make us feel guilty about those things, but it is trying to say, are you doing enough? Because the poem has the invitation to say, we protested, but not enough. We oppose them, but not enough. So what is the enough going to be? Nhot some ting that people have to reckon with for themselves. But certainly this poem is inviting us to think about the enough and move toward that. Rather just thinking of the bare minimum. We lived happily during the war. By ilya kminsky, we lived happily during the war. And when they balbed other people's houses, we protested, but not enough. We opposed them, but not enough. I was in my bed, around my bed, america was falling, invisible house by invisible house by invisible house. I took a chair outside and watched the sun. In the sixth month of a disastrous reign in the house of money, in the street of money, in the city of money, in the country of money, our great country of money, we forgive us lived happily during the war.

We

lived happily during the war. Comes from ilia kaminski's book, deaf epublic, and was originally published in poetry magazine. Thank you to the permission company on behalf of gray wolf press, who gave us permission to use alia's poem. Read it on our web site. Ad on being dot org. Poetry unbound is gotham shrikshen, cris heagle, arin calasaco, eddie gonzales, lilian vo and me lily percy. Our music is composed and provided by galcham shrikeshen and blue dot sessions. This podcast is produced by on being studios, which is located on tacota land. We also produce other podcasts you might enjoy, like on being with christa tippet, become wise and this movie changed me. Find those wherever you like to listen, or visit us at onbeang dot org to find out more.

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partcase is produced by all meing studios. Minneapolis miser