Guiding us all through endless night <br />A student of Freud, a genius too <br />Hated by the Nazis <br />Because he was a Jew <br />Imprisoned for years <br />He longed to be free <br />Five years, what a test of his psychiatry. <br /> <br />In Auschwitz he mixed <br />With German and Jew <br />Jehovahs, Gypsies <br />Where survival each day <br />Tested all that he knew. <br /> <br />He learned about mankind <br />And found two basic strands <br />The decent and indecent <br />Whatever their lands <br /> <br />The prisoners who turned Capo <br />And betrayed their friends <br />The German who risked life <br />To make some amends <br />He talks of the Jews <br />At liberation time <br />Who asked the allies to pardon <br />The Commandant for his crimes <br />Because of the compassion <br />He showed to them over time <br /> <br />He left when the Allies opened the gates <br />And all of the inmates with wonder they shook <br />The hands of the soldiers who saved their dire fate <br />In his mind Viktor had already <br />Written his book. <br />He called it Logotherapy, <br />Mans Search for Meaning <br />Where Freud saw that sex <br />Was what drove us on <br />He said we need meaning <br />To feel we belong. <br /> <br />He spoke of the see-saw <br />Between living and dying <br />Of Thanatos and Eros <br />Within each human mind, vying <br />To kill us or save us <br />Whatever the cost <br />And he said, if we have no meaning <br />The battle is lost.<br /><br />Stephen Loomes<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/viktor-frankl-mans-search-for-meaning/
