The Straight Path: In Praise Of Israeli and Palestinian Poets

I am writing this to honour the dead. Every single person that’s experienced affliction during this, what they call, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Like Yehuda Amichai, I “believe that all poetry is political because it deals with a human response to reality”. King Netanyahu, King Palestine, I bow before you. War builds new empires, genocides build new countries. In a heartbeat poets are immortalised during war. This has taken place since ancient times. This has been a bad year. Israeli and Palestinian poets and writers are chasing hope, peace of mind. Mosab Abu Toha writes, “I have these stories with me. The hard part was reflecting on my feelings, not my experience. There are two parts to any story, the experience and the feelings…And this is what poetry is to me”.

A poet understands the blank page because they are a philosopher. The night sky isn’t an airstrike, it turns into starlight, a constellation beyond becomes a wildflower, a hostage becomes a freedom fighter. A poet has no country, a poet belongs to the world, and they speak on behalf of humanity, for the generation that came before, and the one that will follow.

It isn’t war, it is a fight for humanity, for the return of a divine power to set the record straight. It isn’t conflict, it is more of a human nature to amplify the genetic predispositions for chronic illness, mood disorder, and manic depression. In that meeting room, that place, that space, holding the laws, in that tender room lies the rhythm and vibration of eternal rest. The poet is the holder of a moral compass.

In the poet’s hands a straight path becomes a detailed map encompassing vision and interior, shapes of consolation that carry divine power.

What is this vision

this interior

these shapes of consolation

men, women, children

turn into a wave

their body becomes

a ripple in a sea

this poem lands in a river

for all eternity

Poets have a sacred language

every word is from the divine

All life is sacred

Poetry nourishes. In conflict, we confront and sabotage.

I fade into your hurt

into this poem

into your collective pain

to build a home

to build a country

to build a sanctuary

in war, it takes peace

a collective peace of mind

words, the poems

of Israeli and Palestinian poets

it is only death that parts us

in war there are tanks

but also summer and wildflowers

I suppose if you can

handle melancholy (see depression)

you can handle anything.

Death is neither

just or fair. Life is neither just

or fair. In war, in the Israeli-

Palestinian conflict there are still

novels, plays, films. In war, poetry

is a saint. Poetry is truth.

Poetry is meant for humanity

Death can wait. I write this journal entry as if I found a journal that belonged to a poet in the rubble of the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike. Perhaps it is the journal of a poet who is studying at an Israeli university. They left this journal behind on a bench found on the campus. Poets want the same thing. Poets believe in the same thing. They believe in truth.

I am underground in this dream

Underground they tell me

that there’s a tunnel

that will lead me to your body

I take seed with me

Next Spring wildflowers

will grow in that tunnel

to commemorate the departures

of both the dead and the living

A child, a young bride doesn’t know the meaning of instability, or how to handle emotional triggers in war. Poetry is not meant for enlightened beings, beings of light or only dark, poetry is an act of defiance, a source of justice and integrity. Poetry is meant for humanity. I turn the page. Death can wait but not life.

I am, I was

You are, you were

and so, a new chapter begins

I give in to gravity

to madness and despair

to this book of lives

Look how this poem

becomes a river

and look how every

ripple turns into a ceasefire

Poets and novelists understood, understand what was meant by personal freedom, every artist that ever lived, dead or alive, those remembered, those whose work have turned to dust.

The following is an extract taken from my essay “The Hypomanic, And Unquiet Mind Of The Tortured Poet” published on LinkedIn.

“Here are some life events, people found in the unquiet imagination of a thinker, intellectual, philosopher, activist, that a female poet from Africa envisions. Reading poetry is a sensation that is fluid. It is nourishing, this thin activity. It reminds us of our survival. That our survival is found in our blood, and the ladders of our genes. Survival is also found in the unquiet mind of the tortured poet. Death is just another location. To be oblivious to someone is like being in an alternate universe (paralysis). How do you communicate with this person, people that you love if you can’t embrace them, talk to them and it torments you. I think you give them a signal. When you’re in love it is almost like an illness, this stupor, this nameless disturbance. And the poet writes, but what do other people do who aren’t poets? They let life happen to them. They find that concentrated quiet word ‘love’ beneath them, complicated, and unnatural to them. The body of a woman is art. The body of a man is art. Art has both physical and spiritual dimensions to it like an empty mountain, the rural countryside, unbroken communication, old men and women reliving their childhood through flashbacks, memories and dreams and their own grandchildren.”

I write as a poet, as humanity for the children, men and women of Israel and Palestinine but especially for the children and this is my prayer for all who are affected by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No one is immune to pain. Perhaps more so, a vulnerable child who cannot defend themselves against a tank.

Let us pray for small children. Let us pray for new beginnings for them. Their expressions of laughter, enthusiasm and glee from a novel discovery. Let us pray for the affection of small children. Let us pray for mothers and matriarchs. Let us pray for single parents and grandmothers. Watch them as they smile. Watch the innocence in their eyes. Ideas transform society and so we become an unlimited and united family who no longer feel triumphant and arrogant by material accomplishments in the world but whose body consciousness becomes much more spiritual.

We feel that we are no longer devoted to or expressing spiritual poverty. Protective wings sheltered us when we were young. We were lotus flowers and so we began to discriminate between the two images. The images of arrogance and success. The images of success and humility. Let us pray for the vicious, negative vibrations that we cannot escape in war, in conflict, in occupation, in genocide. Let us pray for the leaders of Israel and Palestine, and for the setting of goals. Humanity needs to release him/her/every child from anxiety, loneliness, bitterness, resentment, regret, past humiliation and weakness, past mistakes that have been made in a moment of passion, anger, outrage, violence, brutality, depression and stress, frustration and a feeling of being pathetic in a situation that you had no control over.

Let it go. Release it. Surrender it to the universe. Now we come to rewards. We pray for a clear intellect. We pray for a lack of ego. We pray for a clarity of vision. Goals that will lead to rewards and a flow of concise language. In the human drama that everyone has a role to play a part in be careful what you feed the intellect. Pray for your children, pray for your family, pray for humanity, pray for the plant kingdom that nurtures the human family, pray for the animal kingdom that protects you and your folk and kin, pray for your guardian angels, your spirit guides, your earth angels, your family who have crossed over into the hereafter.

Humanity is concerned with the ego and not with the lack of it. The brothers and sisters of your human family whether they are believers and non-believers are concerned with atonement, and charity. The easiest ways to love, honor, cherish and obey in hardship and struggle is realising that it is all a part of your journey, your destination, the fork in the road, the open road, the pathway. These are all beautiful things to realise. Almost as beautiful as statues. Are we living life the way we should? Are you being very careful with what we are feeding the intellect? With our thought processes?

There will always be people to uplift you. Look to the poets and novelists to enrich and uplift you. Do you have a tendency to panic when things do not go your way? This happened in apartheid South Africa. This happened to Mandela and other freedom fighters. In war, all soldiers are freedom fighters. Appreciate the fact that life is sending you obstacles and challenges and opportunities. Realise that sometimes you are limited in the help you can give other people but know that you will eventually empower and uplift other people with the simplicity of your humility.

The Christian prays the following: God, sovereign Lord, sweet Christ, our caretaker, language and protector. We pray that you will help us value our achievements on this planet earth with a clarity of vision, with effortless and with constant love, a grateful heart and humility. Make me realise that a situation is only as difficult as I want it to be and that we all need someone to lean on in hard times. When we are going through trials, let us learn that a problem shared is a problem solved.

The members of this family in their own way have, like all people around the world, felt lonely, vulnerable, different, rejected, the outsider for their faith, their religion, stigma, addiction, the spirit of brokenness in relationships and they do not want this exposed because it is a sign of weakness.

The energy of this world is becoming more and more unstable (for example, climate change and the talk of social cohesion, and there is a lack of respect that young men and young women have for their elders, they worship the material life, the physical).

But in war, all children are extraordinary. They have the intention and the potential to do the impossible. A mother’s work like a community leader’s work is never done. She is the nurturer. With her constant unconditional love, she is working with the classical ingredients to make a home. She uses her energy and her resources; the source is her unwavering faith. If you are a child in war, then you are an exceptional, extraordinarily built child. If you are a mother, then you are special beyond words, lovely beyond imagination, intelligent that goes without saying, and elegant.

Let us pray that we will change old patterns, spark new and magnificent breakthroughs, take on adventure, a leap of faith and make the perfect landing.

Dearest Humanity, it takes one person, one enlightened being, one poet to start a movement. Remember that. King Netanyahu, King Palestine, and the powers that be, I kneel before you and ask for a ceasefire.

Published on the Modern Diplomacy website in the blog African Renaissance on December 5, 2024.