Poetry

Joe Dolce: Can you write left-handed poetry?

Can you write left-handed poetry?   The clerk at the Schreibstube produced samples on a paper pad: gutter rhymes, obscenities, filthy limericks. Eighteen year old Abraham Cykiert had written verse since fourteen, but, in Auschwitz, a good poem earned extra soup, bread. Even shoes.   Cykiert wrote the doggerel well, becoming a member of a group, that amused capos and SS at camp functions. The Nazis loved his filth, and laughed. At the end of the night, the entertainers were rewarded with party leftovers,   but after the war, Abraham Cykiert was so ashamed of the left-handed poetry he had…

Subscribe to get access to all online articles

Digital Subscription

$98 / YR

Get the latest ideas from Australia’s most insightful writers.

Subscribe

  • Digital Subscription includes
  • Online editions of Quadrant Magazine
  • Printed editions of Quadrant Magazine
  • iPad ready PDF
  • Access to Quadrant Archives
  •  
  •  

Printed & Digital Subscription

$118 / YR

For avid readers of leading ideas
from Australia’s brightest.

Subscribe

  • Printed & Digital Subscription includes
  • Online editions of Quadrant Magazine
  • Printed editions of Quadrant Magazine
  • iPad ready PDF
  • Access to Quadrant Archives
  •  
  •  

Quadrant Patron

$300 / YR

Show your support for Australia’s
most open minded publication.

Subscribe

  • Quadrant Patron includes
  • Online editions of Quadrant Magazine
  • Printed editions of Quadrant Magazine
  • iPad ready PDF
  • Access to Quadrant Archives
  • All new editions of Quadrant Books
  • Exclusive invitations to Quadrant Dinners, book launches and events.

Quadrant Patron

$0 / YR

Show your support for Australia’s
most open minded publication.

Subscribe

  • Quadrant Patron includes
  • Online editions of Quadrant Magazine
  • Printed editions of Quadrant Magazine
  • iPad ready PDF
  • Access to Quadrant Archives
  • All new editions of Quadrant Books
  • Exclusive invitations to Quadrant Dinners, book launches and events.