Poetry saving America Day 12 #NationalPoetryMonth

Once again we appear to be left to our own devices to think about why Tony Hoagland's Twenty Poems That Could Save America includes this one:

is a pencil ever just a pencil?

Photo by J. Harrington

Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway-Car

By: Dan Pagis

here in this carload
I am eve
with abel my son
if you see my other son
cain son of man
tell him I 

Although we found no indication of why Hoagland chose this poem, we believe that Jacqueline Saphra's analysis of the poem offers an interesting starting point.

This famous poem contains a distilled shot of plot. Firstly the title begins to suggest a context. Someone is writing inside a sealed railway car: the clear indication that it is related to The Holocaust. Dan Pagis was himself a holocaust survivor, but I didn’t know that when I first read the poem, I don’t need to know it, but it certainly adds to the gravity of the material. The poem relies on both on my knowledge of history and of religious archetypes. The narrative is in the biblical backstory as well as the historical context. The author is relying on my knowledge of both. I know that Cain killed his brother and I know that he became a fugitive and wanderer afterwards. I immediately see the parallel between the Nazis and their victims.

The fact that Pagis refers to Cain as ‘son of man’ is also relevant. He is placing the blame or responsibility for the Holocaust squarely on the shoulders of human beings rather than anything supernatural. And finally, the end is also a part of the narrative. We know what happened to the people in those ‘carloads’. Their lives were ended, interrupted. There is of course also the possibility that she is prevented from writing anymore: she dies perhaps, before she has a chance to finish?

But there is a second interpretation, which is that Eve can’t think what to say to her other son – his transgression is too great and words fail her, as the mother of one son who kills another, and parallel to that, perhaps fail the poet too. And what are we to make of the ‘pencil’ mentioned in the title? This surely conveys a sense of impermanence, the risk that the memory of those who died can be rubbed out or forgotten.

The poem enacts a contracted but huge narrative – with some ambiguities, which only seem to strengthen it – beginning with the first murder ever committed, and linking it to the Holocaust, and all in eight lines (including the title). Quite a feat of storytelling.

What does a poem, written in pencil, about religious history and the holocaust have to do with saving America? Is it significant that the poem was written in pencil? Several analyses of this poem make something of that but fail to note the simplest explanation: a pencil was the only writing instrument available to the "I" in the poem. We can lose ourselves even in accessible poems if we try hard. Back to the selection.

Could Hoagland be using this poem to call our attention to the idea that America, as created by its founders, was intended to serve its people as a democracy? But, unfortunately, the story of America contains many deep flaws, including slavery, genocide, racism, intolerance and murders. America was created and continues through the efforts of imperfect humans. It can be no better than our collective goodness will support. One of our major challenges continues to be a need to protect the rights of minorities while honoring the will of a majority. If nothing else, this poem is an excellent reminder of what not to do, of what we must do everything in our power to forego. The holocaust was perpetrated by a fascist government, a flaw that, so far, America has avoided. On the other hand, some might argue that the distinction between sealed railway cars and a Trail of Tears is a distinction without a difference, as some of our lawyer friends might phrase it.

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