CHESAPEAKE — One might wonder why a Christian woman in Virginia would feel compelled to write a book of poetry about a little European Jewish girl who died more than half a century earlier.
“I've even had Jewish people ask me why I wrote the book,” says Phyllis Johnson, author of the recently published Being Frank with Anne.
Referring to Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl, Johnson reflects, “I'd just sum it up to say that her words grabbed hold of me and never let go. I think it was her courage and determination to find the good in bad people and the silver lining in the cloud of negative situations.”
Years ago, inspired by the diary, Johnson spent one summer interpreting Frank's writings into unrhymed verse. Intending to return to the project at a later time, she filed away the spiral notebooks containing her work and, in time, all but forgot them. But the verses would not be silenced.
“One day, pulling out the notebooks, I remembered the feeling I had while writing the poems. For me it was a way of getting right to the core of the emotion found in her words. Although I can't begin to understand what her life was truly like in hiding for a few years, I tried to gain some insight as to her general mood through the words in her journaling.” In the verses, Johnson writes from the vantage point of Kitty, the diary itself.
Spurred to action by the success of her first book of poetry, a little volume called Hot and Bothered by it All, and being encouraged by a Jewish friend, Johnson returned to her project. She has dedicated her book to the memory of that friend, Krystyna Bublick.
But Johnson, a devout Christian and member of Jackson Memorial Baptist Church in Chesapeake, hopes the book will have a testimony beyond Frank's life in hiding. “While rereading her diary, I came to notice the fact that Anne wanted to read the New Testament, something that many people don't realize. Her dad, Otto, went to the extent of getting a New Testament for her to read. This is a fact that I mention in my poetry. It is because of that, I feel this book carries with it a form of witness. It is nothing to beat somebody over the head with, but has the potential to be a subtle but effective witness.”
Johnson credits her father, who died last week after a lingering illness, with establishing in her a love for writing. “Years ago when I was a young girl, my father did something for me that would forever change my life. Every night my dad, Louis Carr Sr., would sit me and my two siblings, Nancy Greene and Carroll Carr (L.C. Carr, Jr.) down on my brother's bed and read us stories and poems. Daddy read to us from a Childcraft book, one of which I still have on my bookshelf. I fell in love with words and the rhythm of them.”
Being Frank with Anne is gaining international attention and may be ordered from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble online or from the publisher at www.communitypresshome. com. A CD of the abridged version with lesson plans for school teachers is also available in the literacy and art support section of the publisher's website. The ISBN is 9780979087820.
Excerpt from Being Frank with Anne
Slit sighted
curtain watching,
you see dirty children pass by-
just like your life.
A noisy dog
announces his presence
and your quiet presence
in hiding makes
your insides
howl in sympathy
for exposed souls outside.
Umbrellas with legs
come into view.
as rain tries to wash away
the misery outside
but falls short.
Like old rags
families are torn apart,
ragged shreds of dignity …
Fibers exposed
Revealing raw nerves.
The cold and hungry
run about with
hollow eyes that
scream in the night.
Guns pounding
like your heartbeat.
Candle flames burn
like halos in the dark-
when Pim allows it.
Rumbling in the attic
is rampant
like the jumbled, throbbing
thoughts in your mind.
You view your past
as though it were a movie.
All the freedom
friends and fun
play before
you like a
screenplay and
you compare the old and new Anne.
Superficial and social
she peers back at you,
laughing.
You like her but
find her shallow,
finding life's real meaning in
love, nature and God.