Tuesday, September 30, 2014

In Defence Of Günter Grass

To listen to an audio recital of the poem, click here




Who is the greater German:
Grass or Hermann Hesse?
Hermann joined the pacifists
Grass the Waffen SS

They want to take his Nobel Prize
and shove it up his arse
Politics trumps literature
in the case of Günter Grass

They want to take his Nobel Prize
and stuff it down his throat
You fools - this misses the whole point
Honour what he wrote

How should dishonoured Germany
face up to its guilt?
It seems this was his motive
in every word he spilt

Yes, spilt - the blood of Germany
bleeds through his every line
If he was a fool at seventeen
These books have paid his fine

And what about the Peace prizes
To Kissinger and Arafat?
I say you should revoke those too
but there’s no chance of that

This outrage against Günter
resounds like a hollow hum
drowned out by majestic beating
from an unrustable tin drum 



"In Defence of Gunther Grass" is published in "Welcome To My World, Selected Poems 1973-2013", The Argaman Press. Click here to purchase the book.









Copyright © 2014 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press


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