In the end I decided to use the words of people involved from the testimony provided at trial, from the peace treaty signed prior, and public statements by civilian and government officials. I struggled with the question of who could speak for whom when writing a piece on the Sand Creek Massacre. вЂњTo write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.вЂќ How close do we need to be to a disaster to claim it in writing, to express solidarity, or demand accountability? How do we express without exploitation? To вЂњTry to praise the mutilated worldвЂќ as Adam ZagajewskiвЂ™s poem explores. We may question the ethics of writing about disaster, the words of cultural critic Theodor Adorno replaying in our minds. As Nicole Cooley asks in вЂњPoetry of DisasterвЂќ, вЂwhat work can poetry do in the world in the face of disaster?вЂ™ In the end she posits that poetry creates a necessary space in the face of disaster, to ruminate, mourn, and make sense of the senseless.

Poets have always written of disaster, personal and global, performing a tightrope act. The suffering of thousands or millions can overwhelm our ability to find a voice with which to cry out. Catastrophe rarely leaves us with clear narrative and an understanding of causality. As such the poetry of disaster is often fragmented. To write what is unspeakable, unfathomable, and incomprehensible. As poets we may then wish to express our solidarity through words. Most of us empathize greatly with the suffering of others. In the midst of catastrophe we can become silent, shocked by events, withdrawing into our grief. вЂњCatastrophe is indeed already the condition of language, the condition of the ruins of time.вЂќ Harold Bloom

Train wreck at Montparnasse 1895 (public domain)

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