Thinking prompt #7: REQUIEM

Hi Everyone,

I’ve been rereading a lot of Russian poetry lately, in part to remind myself that a culture’s literature and art will always, ultimately, outlast its despots.

Here is the opening to Anna Akhmatova’s famous poem “Requiem,” a lament for the victims of Stalin’s terror in the 1930s.

“No foreign sky protected me,

no stranger’s wing shielded my face.

I stand as witness to the common lot,

survivor of that time, that place.”

I encourage you to read (or reread) Akhmatova’s entire poem, especially at this troubling historical moment. To start, please use these four lines as your thinking prompt for the week. What are your characters witnessing, what are they surviving, that is an essential tale of their place and times?

Good luck!

Abrazos,

Cristina