Vienna Charm, Vienna Smiles
\nAnd the Gargoyles<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In Vienna all the other Americans (not the Brits, not even Also the schnitzel. Viennese street-smiles are never shy, In the wine-houses \u2013 their name Heureigers \u2013 or This Year\u2019s \u2013 lets for survivor Jews who came back home to live as you might think. that hovers over all the visitors who marvel at this still-ancient baroque <\/p>\n Pat Hurshell, U.W. Ph.D. in English, has received Ford and Woodrow Wilson grants for her research on Jewish women and the Shoah;\u00a0 When Silence Speaks, When Women Sorrow: Rue & Difference in the Lamentations for the Six Million<\/em> <\/a>won the U.W. Engl. Department\u2019s Robert Heilman Distinguished Dissertation Award<\/em>. She taught for the U.W. English and Women Studies Departments from 1978-1997 and is the founder and coordinator of the U.W. Jewish Women\u2019s Lives Project<\/em> [1986- ]. Seattle-born, in her first life she sang for 26 years in European opera houses\u00a0 (Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, plus those in New York, New Orleans, Chicago, and Seattle). Her poems have been heard on Oregon radio\u2019s Literary Caf\u00e9, & <\/em>published in a variety of journals, including Best American Poetry, 2009.<\/em><\/a>\u00a0She is currently translating the German Shoah poems of Gertrude Kolmar, Hilde Domain and Rose Auslander as well as preparing a book of her own poems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Vienna Charm, Vienna Smiles And the Gargoyles In Vienna all the other Americans (not the Brits, not even ……..the Canadians) were and are light- hearted, delighted by Viennese charm. They love the operettas, ……..the funny dialect songs, the operas … Continue reading
\n……..<\/span>the Canadians) were and are light-
\nhearted, delighted by Viennese charm. They love the operettas,
\n……..<\/span>the funny dialect songs, the operas
\nthat make the audience always cry while they cheer and they
\n……..<\/span>love the wine, of course.<\/p>\n
\n……..<\/span>greetings forever nice welcomes-filled
\ncharm\u2013beams so you know Vienna means Good Will, Jolly Folks,
\n……..<\/span>Friendly Facts (except on the buses —
\nnever on the buses \u2013 where Viennese faces stay blank, defenses
\n……..<\/span>high the way they\u2019ve been taught in
\nthe old carefulnesses, cautious as raccoons crouched bland
\n……..<\/span>against strangers, those others riding
\ntoo who might know some secret the rider should maybe hide).<\/p>\n
\n……..<\/span>you know these wines are brand new,
\nfreshly pressed for now-imbibing \u2013 no bad memories hang around
\n……..<\/span>with the grapes for those who don\u2019t
\nlike much to remember what went on before. It\u2019s not as hard<\/p>\n
\n……..<\/span>They know what they know, just
\nlike the stony heads of the high-up gargoyles still staring down or
\n……..<\/span>out over passersby in the silence<\/p>\n
\n……..<\/span>in always-present modernity where
\nI myself lived once. How odd to think about South Africa and Germany
\n……..<\/span>neatly adjusting to their own pasts.
\nMy mother never forgot how she went once to some women\u2019s club
\n……..<\/span>In Seattle where Eleanor Roosevelt
\nexplained to the women (I think this was around 1942) that Jewish
\n……..<\/span>refugee children wouldn\u2019t really feel
\nat home in the States so really it was better for them to stay over there
\n……..<\/span>with their own families. My family
\ndidn\u2019t take a child either. I was sitting in a Viennese synagogue when
\n……..<\/span>I remembered that.<\/p>\n