Journeys Home: Ficowski's "A Reading of Ashes"

Saturday, January 18, 2025

Ficowski's "A Reading of Ashes"

A few years ago I discovered the poetry of Polish poet and writer Jerzy Ficowski (1924-2006). During the war he was part of the Polish resistance and participated in the Warsaw Uprising. I found this edition of his book, A Reading of Ashes: Poems (Odczytanie popiołów). The book is in Polish and Hebrew, with art by Marc Chagall.

This source discusses Ficowski's desire to address the Holocaust, as well as efforts to conceal the horror. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/reading-ashes-poems-odczytanie-popiolow

In another source, we have this: "A Reading of Ashes is an attempt to invent a language to describe completely new things, as well as an expression of helplessness and genuine repentance." https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110671056-085/html?lang=en&srsltid=AfmBOopZw7nIo0ZchQcUzRlfJDHYGCptYQ3VNSBODeqM6ovhXRwRKC7G

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Journeys Home

The contents of this blog are my personal views and opinions and are not in any way representative of my employers, publishers, or any associations or organizations with which I'm affiliated.

All pictures not drawn or taken by me are copied here under fair use principles. Please contact me to remove any such pictures.

Welcome to this blog, which I've been keeping since 2009. Please feel free to browse the contents, or follow it for updates. Check back as often you'd like!

Lately, this blog has included a variety of odd things that interest me as I go along--including music and art. Several previous posts were year-long series on subjects in religion and spirituality, each undertaken as an enjoyable discipline to keep my own spiritual life on a positive path. In 2014, I listened to and wrote about Bach's sacred cantatas on or near the Sundays and special days for which they were written. In 2015, I wrote about special days celebrated by different world religions. In 2016, I studied the lives of saints and faithful persons honored on different Christian liturgical calendars. In 2017-18, I studied the entire Bible (including the Apocrypha) and posted my notes.

Throughout this blog, I've written about a number of subjects, including Bible-based reflections, spirituality and religion, interfaith concerns, my hometown, favorite roads and places, current events, the funny and weird moments of life, favorite music and art, and so on. But I've always had three interrelated themes in mind. One is the joy of making everyday connections as we move through our lives. Another is "the journey," including the spiritual quest, in which we struggle for understanding and assurances and look to God in hope. The third is "home": the places and circumstances that anchor us, the goals of our journeys, and the heavenly home that the Lord prepares for us (John 14:2)

My hometown area, Fayette Co., IL, is always an anchor and "conceptual continuity" for me. The header photograph is from that area, near Brownstown, the vicinity where my maternal ancestors settled before the Civil War.

All original material copyright 2009-2025 by Paul E. Stroble. All Bible quotations in this blog are from the New Revised Standard Version unless otherwise indicated. The New Revised Standard Version Bible is copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

A word about my Bible notes

At about the time I turned 50 in 2007, I made an effort to deepen my Bible study. I wanted to study comparatively unfamiliar areas of the book, and I especially wanted to gain a better sense of its canonical interconnections (prophecies, allusions, historical connections, etc.). I had a then-30-year-old Bible that was a worse-for-wear hodgepodge of notes, jottings, and cross-references. I had also purchased a new NRSV. My old and new notetaking comprised both a midlife resolution and an enjoyable, renewed devotion to study.

Eventually, I incorporated my notes into a Blogspot site, “Changing Bibles,” and three WordPress sites, “The Love of Bible Study,” “Psalm 121,” and “Bible Connections.”

Then, the notetaking evolved into my book, "Walking with Jesus through the New Testament" (Westminster John Knox Press, 2015).

THEN, in 2017-2018, I did another series of notetaking as an effort to study the Bible start to finish. I posted those notes on my main blog, “Journeys Home.” Once finished, I put the notes into one file (215 pages!) and posted that file onto “Journeys Home” and “Changing Bibles.” I think I also shared these notes onto my other eclectic blog, “Grace, Place, and the Like” on WordPress.”

More recently, I created a site called "Plague Stories of the Bible". These are Bible lessons written in response to (and during) the Covid pandemic.

My initial resolution to read the Bible as a midlife project clearly got out of hand, but in a good way.

Some of my books.

High on the Okaw's Western Bank: Vandalia, Illinois, 1819-1839 (University of Illinois Press, 1992)
The Social Ontology of Karl Barth (International Scholars Publications, 1995)
Journeys Home (Self-Published, 1995)
"The Kentucky Council of Churches, 1947-1997," manuscript in the Filson Club, Louisville, KY.
Life and Letters of Paul: Galatians (Abingdon, 2000)
Mystery: Exploring the Mystery of God (Abingdon, 2002)
What Do Other Faiths Believe? (Abingdon, 2003)
You Gave Me a Wide Place: Holy Places of Our Lives (Upper Room Books, 2006)
What about Religion and Science (Abingdon, 2007)
What Does the Bible Say about Jesus (Abingdon 2008)
What Does the Bible Say about Life Together (Abingdon, 2008)
Celebrate the Newborn Jesus (Abingdon, 2009)
Walking with Jesus through the Old Testament: Devotions for Lent (Westminster John Knox Press, January 2016)
Faithful Citizen (principal author), FaithfulCitizen.net (Logos Productions, 2011).
Dreaming at the Electric Hobo, poetry chapbook (Finishing Line Press, 2015)
Little River, poetry chapbook (Finishing Line Press, 2017)
Small Corner of the Stars, poetry chapbook (Finishing Line Press, 2017)
Backyard Darwin, poetry chapbook (Finishing Line Press, 2019)
Walking Lorton Book, poetry book (Finishing Line Press, 2021)
Four Mile, poetry book (Finishing Line Press, 2022)
Galapagos Joy, poetry chapbook (Finishing Line Press, 2023)
East Rock, poetry book (Finishing Line Press, 2024)
Holy Week 1847, poetry book (Finishing Line Press, 2025)

Books and studies to which I've contributed.

Vandalia Bicentennial 1819-2019
Vandalia Remembered: Celebrating a City with a Capital Heritage, 1819-1994. Leader-Union Publishing Co., 1994.
Encyclopedia of Louisville. University Press of Kentucky, 2000
Becoming the People of God: Living Faithfully as Friends and Family. Abingdon Press, 2001.
Becoming the People of God: Caring for God's Earth. Abingdon Press, 2002.
Becoming the People of God: Walking Humbly, Doing Justice. Abingdon Press, 2002.
Becoming the People of God: Forming a Global Family. Abingdon Press, 2003.
Becoming the People of God: Opting for Virtue in Public Life. Abingdon Press, 2003.
Becoming the People of God: Working Together: Sharing the Bounty. Abingdon Press, 2003.
Living by the Word. Chalice Press, 2005.
Connecting Faith & Life in Hard Times: A FaithLink Feature. Abingdon Press, 2009.
FaithLink Feature: The Sandy Hook Shootings, 2012

My Other Sites

Although "Journeys Home" is my primary blog, I also have these sites:

My Instagram page is https://www.instagram.com/paulstroble/

"Grace, Place, and the Like," paulstroble.wordpress.com, is an "annex" of this "Journeys Home" site.

These sites are not updated but hopefully are still interesting:

"Plague Stories of the Bible," https://www.plaguestoriesofthebible.com are Bible lessons written in response to (and during) the Covid pandemic.

"Psalm 121," http://hundredtwentyfirstpsalm.com are my reveries and notes around my favorite psalm.

"Changing Bibles," changingbibles.blogspot.com are brief notes and informal studies of the Bible.

"Bible Connections," bibleconnections.wordpress.com, are essays that trace themes and connections across the Bible's books.

"The Love of Bible Study," theloveofbiblestudy.com are essays about the seasons when I perused the pages of my beat-up, 35-year-old Bible.

"I Will Dwell in the House of the Lord For Ever," a Tumblog of vintage postcards of church buildings. http://paulestroble.tumblr.com

Saturday, January 18, 2025

Ficowski's "A Reading of Ashes"

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