“A sudden sense of joy and warmth and a resounding note of love”

Believe me, it was often thus:

In solitary cells, on winter nights

A sudden sense of joy and warmth

And a resounding note of love.

And then, unsleeping. I would know

A-huddle by an icy wall:

Someone is thinking of me now,

Petitioning the Lord for me.

My dear ones, thank you all

Who did not falter, who believed in us!

In the most fearful prison hour

We probably would not have passed

Through everything - from end to end,

Our heads held high, unbowed-

Without your valiant hearts

to light our path.

"Believe Me"

Irina Ratushinskaya

Kiev, 10 Oct. 1986

Ratushinskaya wrote of her experiences in a Soviet prison in Grey is the Color of Hope, published in 1988.