Found Poem (More Nightmares than Daydreams) by CASSANDRA SMITH

Found Poem (More Nightmares than Daydreams) by CASSANDRA SMITH https://padlet.com/smi08882/ujdcmhs717kh Cassie Smith en-us 2018-04-27 18:12:31 UTC 2025-11-19 12:33:35 UTC hello@padlet.com More Nightmares than Daydreams smi08882 https://padlet.com/smi08882/ujdcmhs717kh/wish/256134069 Awful nightmares

Things I was only able to dream about froze our blood from fear

I felt numb, I couldn’t be seeing this

I could never believe anything like this exists

This was totally unreal and unbelievably dangerous

The Final Solution, he was not going to lose the war against the Jews

The inhumanity of man against man

Murderer

Urgently pursued the killing

Their hatred was so blind

It all seems like a dream

We heard shooting and screams

Jews beaten with no reason

Anti-semitic, the swastika, Nazi flag, Heil Hitler

The demons, this was Hell

Why did I survive? Why did God spare me? Where is God?

No longer alive, disappeared from our eyes

Whatever they promised us, whatever they told us,

Were lies

All like a dream

Forced labor camps, concentration camps

Separated by wires

Putting this number on our flesh

This one goes right, the other goes left to the ovens

In mass graves, you stepped over bodies

This is the end, end their misery

I wanted to be treated like a human being again

Like a dream

Can you imagine

Another destiny, different directions

I had a premonition pushing us towards that destination

I won’t go to their gas chambers

I’m going to fight because I won’t become ashes

They’re not going to take my soul

I promise to resist mercilessly

To struggle for life, I’ll never give up...

The search is over

I became a free human being again

A dream

]]> 2018-04-27 18:37:21 UTC https://padlet.com/smi08882/ujdcmhs717kh/wish/256134069 Rationale smi08882 https://padlet.com/smi08882/ujdcmhs717kh/wish/256244547 The first three stanzas are about disbelief, the person, specifically a Jew, doesn’t understand why this is happening to them. It seems like nightmares and daydreams, stuff that wouldn’t happen in the real world, which is why I named it “More Nightmares than Daydreams”. Unfortunately, they begin to accept that this is what they will have to face, which is the reason why I keep shortening the original phrase “It all seems like a dream”. The last stanza goes on to explain that they will struggle and fight to live, to become free, but only in their dreams. I used this more depressing theme because there wasn’t anything good or happy about the Holocaust, it was about discrimination and attempting to eliminate a certain religion, Judaism. I thought it would be more appropriate to portray this in a more solemn way because of that.

To go more into it, in the first stanza this person saw something really horrible, something that put them into shock. They can’t believe nor understand what they are seeing, and feel the need to blame Hitler, the “he” in line six, and to call him a murderer. During the second stanza, they begin to recognize the surroundings, and seeing all the horrors that come with it. As they do so, they begin to question their faith, which is why I put the questions about God in line sixteen. They continue on to explain to themselves that God is dead, and whatever came with Him was false hope and lies, dreams that other Jews had before them. In the third stanza, they are taken to a concentration or a labor camp, and continue to see more horrors. They witness the numbers, many bodies, and worst of all, the ovens, and want it all to end, their misery to end, this is the reason I used “This is the end, end their misery”. Along with their misery, is being treated inhumanely, and longing to be seen as a real person again. In the final stanza, they fully accept the scenario they are in, and also want to fight for their freedom. This is represented by them promising to resist, struggle and to never give up. But like before, it seems unlikely to happen, as they call it “ a dream” once more. Though, they twist the comparison of dream to disbelief, instead to wishful thinking. Unfortunately in the end, even though they want to fight back, they believe they’ll never succeed, seeing it as false hope. This being a different kind of disbelief, the inability to believe in oneself. ]]> 2018-04-28 18:33:46 UTC https://padlet.com/smi08882/ujdcmhs717kh/wish/256244547