Ode to the Silent Thunder Cycle
You are the soul this poem and this music are reaching for across time and silence.
This work, Ode to the Silent Thunder, was born from a place where memory and music entwine — a place where history trembles beneath our feet and demands to be witnessed again.
Poetry and music have long carried what could not be spoken aloud: the broken prayers, the songs of resistance, the fierce whisper of dignity when all else seemed lost.In the darkest chapters of humanity, from Weimar to Buchenwald, it was not weapons that kept hope alive — it was memory carried through voice, song, and art.
You who read these words, you who listen with your inner ear —this offering is for you.
It is rooted in the spirit of Friedrich Schiller’s cry for human dignity, in the immortal music of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and in the living memory of those who resisted tyranny not with violence, but with unwavering humanity.
Today, as once before, history moves dangerously close to the edge.We see the rise of hatred against Jews, against queer and transgender people, against migrants, against Muslims, against those who dare to speak for freedom and law.We see the past not returning as a shadow, but reemerging as a deliberate force.And so, once again, poetry and music must rise.
Ode to the Silent Thunder is not an anthem of despair.It is a bridge between past and present, between the silenced and the speaking, between the broken and the unbroken.
Each verse is a refusal to forget.Each chorus is a hand reaching out through history toward you.
In this cycle, you will find echoes of Schiller’s "Ode to Joy," but transformed through the lens of sorrow, resilience, and fierce tenderness.You will hear whispers from the streets of 1930s Weimar and songs rising from the ashes of Buchenwald.You will stand with those who kept singing when all was stripped away but their souls.
You are not asked to be a passive witness.You are invited to walk alongside the memory, the music, and the living fire that refuses to be extinguished.
This work is an act of remembrance.It is also a call to resistance, to belonging, to courage.
If these words and melodies touch something within you — if you find yourself remembering what the world tries to make you forget — know that you are not alone.You are part of a long, unbroken river of voices that choose dignity over despair.
Thank you for walking this path with me.From my lands in Germany to your lands in the USA, from the deep memory of the old world to the fragile hope of the new, may we choose again and again to care for each other.
May we stand, sing, and rise — together.
If this offering resonates with you, I warmly invite you to subscribe to Wild Lion*esses Pride. Your support — through reading, sharing, subscribing, or tipping — helps keep these songs alive in a world that urgently needs them.
Above all:Take care of each other.Take care of your friends, neighbors, colleagues, Jews and Muslims, Blacks and Brown people, Queer and Transgender people, people with disabilities and health challenges, those who risk themselves to stand up for us all.
We are many.We are making.We are rivers.We will rise.
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