Day: November 18, 2018

To  reinterpret human history.

Voices verging on the shrill, too sharp
Sing the works of Handel and of Bach
Reminding us  of Christmas, love and death
The holy lamb of God born without wrath.

Gregorian chant   and Hebrew music share
Simplicity,  enchantment, music bare
If our  minds were locked into that sphere
Could we end the wars and relieve fear?

Opposing the desire for grace and  peace
Savage men  fire guns and never cease
Sinai, Salisbury Plain  now closed to man
Weapons tested  when they should be banned

Yet Jewish people never fought before
Except when called up in  the first world war
Assimilated ,workers, self effaced
Hitler   employed human sacrifice

Torture, murder, terror don’t improve
The minds  of the survivors as they brood
Cannibals ,slave masters, who are we
To  reinterpret human history?

The  end is near, prepare  your soul and heart
The  message of the Christ  from us departs

Sunshine

Sometimes sunshine  makes us feel bereft
Rain and shadowed clouds would suit  our mood
When we are the warp without the weft

As if we are the  pen and no ink’s left
As if we hunger yet there is no food
Sometimes sunshine  makes us feel bereft

Our mind slows down and all we do is drift
Evil thoughts  into the soul intrude
Like we are the warp without the weft

Let the eye and all its muscles rest
With wider focus   we may cease to brood
Sometimes sunshine  makes us feel bereft

Do not try with will power nor it test
Relaxation brings  back knowledge of the good
We take it in  like babies at the breast

We must  not test the will but let it go
Trust the ocean and eternal flow
Sometimes sunshine  makes us feel bereft
Sometimes sunshine brings its golden  gifts

 

The Dialogue of Poetry: Palestinian and Israeli Poets Writing Through Conflict and Peace

people jumping on body of water
Photo by Tyler Tornberg on Pexels.com

http://www.pij.org/details.php?id=996

Extract:

The importance of communication through poetry to the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.

     by Yvette Neisser

The horror of war inextricably entwined with the craving of peace — this theme has driven the poetry of Israel since the inception of the state.
— Israeli poet Moshe Dor
The color of poetry is coal-black…
— Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish
As Palestinian and Israeli negotiators continue to engage in a long, difficult dialogue about the final status between Israel and a new Palestinian state, I would like to discuss a very different form of dialogue between the two peoples — the dialogue of poetry. Because behind all the signing of agreements and hand-shaking and posturing and red lines and green lines, there is the bottom line: the emotions and experiences of the people.
I believe that poetry, by its nature, is a form of dialogue, and that poems are attempts to communicate. And in the Palestinian-Israeli arena, the poet’s need to communicate across political and cultural boundaries is particularly intense. Yehuda Amichai has acknowledged: “I have no illusions. It’s quite difficult for poets to communicate with one another in a society that is politically torn apart the way ours is.” Nevertheless, because of the geographical, linguistic, and political barriers inhibiting communication between Palestinians and Israelis, many poets, including Amichai, have used poetry as a means to convey messages to “the other side,” or to explore their feelings about the conflict.