Customer Reviews

Poets For Palestine

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4 star:		(2)
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From Mahmoud Darwish to Ghassan Zaqtan, this volume really evokes what I understand to be the sentiment of Palestinians within Palestine as well as throughout the diaspora. Expressions of optimism and hopelessness inform the dichotomy that describes Palestinian existence. As a Palestinian, I found that the selections chosen in this anthology cover a broad range of ideas related to Palestinian life, while extending universal appeal to indigenous communities worldwide--in both subject and authorship. Perhaps anyone would feel engaged by the dialog of a refugee when immersed in the words of these pages. Those words in concert with about thirty images, some beautiful and others jarring, drawn by artists who reside in Palestine complete this collection. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the subject and to anyone else who would like to explore the talented poets and artists featured in Poets for Palestine.

I'm not really a poetry person, but I loved this book! The topic of the poems ranged a lot and each was touching in its own way. The stunning, impressive artwork by Palestinian artists was a great addition to the collection. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in poetry, politics, human rights and/or Palestine! Now that I've read the book, I'm interested in looking up some of the poets to find other works by them.

Diverse styles of poetry, spoken word, and hip-hop coupled with 30 pieces of original art make "Poets for Palestine" an invaluable read. If this anthology is meant to open the eyes of the ignorant, it does it's job. If it is meant to further the education of the sympathetic, it does it's job. This book echoes those whose voice continues to fall on too many a deaf ear around the world. And although I can't personally relate to many of the vivid pictures that it conjures up in my head, "Poets for Palestine" allows me to bear witness through the eyes of those that have. In that, it does it's job.

This book is a collection of poetry from various Palestinian poets (Mostly living in the US) Who write about various experiences from living during the Palestinian uprising, growing up in a divided country, exile from Palestine to the west either through being compelled to do so or through necessity of work or studies. The book also includes numerous art work by various Palestinian artists (all in black and white)

Some of the poets you will agree with, some you may sympathise. Others you may completely disagree with while others may even confirm preconceptions you have of the Palestinian people.

Some of the poets take the point of view of Israeli soldiers, an attempt to understand the thinking of a people many Palestinians regard as 'oppressors' The poets looks at the reasons behind what he sees as Israeli anger and aggression towards the Palestinian people. Other poets compare their plight to that of black Americans, the native Americans and other displaced or marginalised people. This is something that rings common with for example the Basque in Spain and republican groups in Northern Ireland (To the extent of at one time Palestinian flags being flown in republican areas of Northern Ireland) Other poets describe life in the West (Primerally America) While others growing up in the overcrowded Palestinian towns of the Middle East where violence is common, death something that you get used to and rioting with the Israeli army a daily occurrence.

All in all this is a book about a people and anyone who wishes to know a little more about the Palestinian people may want to take a look at this.

This is one of those rare books that I agreed to read and review after hearing from the publisher. At first I said no, then I realized Palestine was very much within my range of interests even if poetry was not, and I am glad to have said yes.

The book brings together 37 poets offering 48 poems interwoven with 30 artist renditions each on their own page. The book is made possible in part by a New York based organization, Al Jisser or "the bridge."

The introduction connects the Palestinians to the much broader concerns of indigenous peoples everywhere, social justice being the shared issue.

Turns of phrase that stayed with me:

- hybrid ideology

- our city is a cell

- memory holding history too harsh to taste

- feel the future dissolve in a moment

- clean water

Five of the poems that resontated with me in a more special way (all are worthy of reading):

- Fathers in Exile

- Moot

- The Coffin Maker Speaks

- Those Policemen are Sleeping: A Call to the Children of Israel and Palestine

- This Is Not a Massacre

As I was preparing to write the review, I noticed the other books that Amazon brings up, using reader choice to connect to other readings of interest, and it hit me: this books is a perfect beginning for anyone who wishes to explore the literature on Palestine's history, current condition, and dubious (or inevitably triumphant) future.

In my notes I wrote "cornerstone for the resurgence of Paletinian identity and self-determination. I am certainly among those who stands with Gandhi, who said "Palestine belongs to the Palestinians the way France belongs to the French."

I was struck by the book's extension to include Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Lebanon, the latter a country I have come to care about after a teaching mission there in 2007. In that light, below are some links to books I recommend along with this one:

Other non-fiction books I recommend:
Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush
The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Vintage)
Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life
Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century
Robert Maxwell, Israel's Superspy: The Life and Murder of a Media Mogul
They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel's Lobby
The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

You can buy this book with confidence that it will satisfy and provoke. Still, as a service to the publisher, who did not use the Amazon "look inside this book" features, here are the titles of all the poems; I type them as a gesture of respect for all that they represent:

Who Am I, Without Exile?
Enemy of Civilization
Portrait of Mona Lisa in Palestine
The Camp Prostitute
Fathers in Exile
Palestinian Identity
Ar-Rahman Road
And So It Goes...
Curfew
Installation/Occupation
The Seven Honeysuckle-sprigs of Wisdom (extract)
Untitled
a moonlit visit
Black Horses
Moot
The Promised Land
Hate
Wall Against Our Breath
Lights Across the Dead Sea
The Coffin Maker Speaks
Morning After the US Invasion of Iraq
The Price of Tomatoes
Regret
Calm
Palestine in Athens
Saudi Israelia
Hamza Aweiwi, a Shoemaker in Hebron
Humming When We Find Her
Wire Layers
Making Arabic Coffee
My Father and the Figtree
The Tea and Sage Poem
Letter to My Sister
In Memoriam: Edward Said 1935-2003
At the Dome of the Rock
Those Policemen Are Sleeping: A Call to the Children of Israel and Palestine
This is Not a Massacre
23 isolation (Infirad)
Free the P
Another Day Will Come
Morning News
break (bas)
Baby Carriages
Kindness
An Idea of Return
changing names
Abu Jamal's Olive Trees
A Tree in Ratah

One last observation: here in the United States of America, the Republic has been destroyed--the people are no longer sovereign. Instead, two criminal parties conduct electoral fraud as theater to they can retain their monopoly of political power which they prostitute to Wall Street and the inbred very small financial class that considers both the American people and the Palestinian people to be virtual slaves of no consequence. At some point soon, the American system will "break" and new possibilities will emerge--it remains lunacy as well as criminal for the USA to spend $1.3 trillion a year on war when a third of that amount could assure a prosperous world at peace, including an international Holy City, a Palestine with access to the sea, and an Israel that is not stealing all the water from the Arab aquifers but instead trading high technology for food grown by Arabs.

Poetry--and indigenous peoples reasserting the sovereignty of people over organizations--may yet save us all.

As this first generation American can attest, this book of poetry certainly evokes feelings familiar to anyone who feels caught between two cultures. Yet, the experiences written about are very singular to the authors within. This book is a wonderful primer to a culture whose own voice is often missing from U.S. media. The styles will certainly be interesting to many, ranging from the abstract, contemplative intellectual, to the street-wise urban poet.

"Poets for Palestine" brings us an array of voices full of yearning, creative passion, and a determination to make themselves and their stories heard. The authors range from renowned poets such as the late, beloved Mahmoud Darwish to hip hop artists Nazir Wattad (aka Ragtop) and the N.O.M.A.D.S., appearing alongside a variety of Palestinian visual artists.

Fady Joudah, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Nathalie Handal draw the reader into earthy memories of a beloved land, embodied by figs, herbs, or olive trees. Nye recalls her father "plucking his fruits like ripe tokens/emblems, assurance/of a world that was always his own." Joudah, too, remembers a proud father and a mother's garden brimming with wonders. In "The Tea and Sage Poem," she writes: "My father says, in his country/Because the earth knows/The scent of history/It gave the people sage," its sweet scent mingling--like the sweetness of remembrance--with a bitter taste. The sweetness of cultivation turns to bitterness in Handal's "Abu Jamal's Olive Trees" in the form of uprooted trees and lost livelihood.

Identity is a recurring theme, and several writers reflect on the duality of life in the Palestinian Diaspora. One of my favorite poems in the collection, Laila Halaby's "A Moonlit Visit," is an aching tribute to a lost love, recalling the "double lives" the two lived as American students born in the Middle East. Editor Remi Kanazi also writes about reconciling parts of his Palestinian-American identity, adding a voice from a young generation "standing proudly with one foot on democracy/And the other seeking autonomy." Mahmoud Darwish writes hauntingly of the experience of exile, "a long night that stares at the water." Exile, to Darwish, is more than a question of displacement from land; it lies at the heart of the exile's identity. "Who am I," he asks, "without exile?"

The N.O.M.A.D.S' "Moot" hits hard, narrated both from the perspective of an Israeli soldier and from that of a Palestinian militant. One hears the driving beat in one's head while reading it, the anger and desperation of both narrators pounding through with rising tension before they collide in a tragic fate.

The volume concludes with "A Tree in Rafah," a moving tribute to Rachel Corrie, herself a poet who understood the power of the written word. "We look for Rachel/beneath a tree in Rafah/bending over her journal," author Dima Hilal writes. "What would she have written next?"

The only piece I disliked was Amiri Baraka's "Enemy of Civilization," which spews venom at an ambiguous "Evil" that could be the United States, Israel, or both. Stream of consciousness poetry may not be the natural realm of nuance and measured discussion of social problems, but labeling people "Gods of the bottom of the toilet bowl" and "one celled poisonous organisms" seems to cross the line from justifiable anger into hate. Baraka's style is reminiscent of the Beat poets, at times stringing together words--such as "He it they them"--at random.

Thirty art pieces, printed in black and white, add striking and sometimes jarring visuals to the text. Many of the images are heart wrenching: the expressions of agony, grief, and rage on the faces of mourners in Nasri Zacharia's "Day of the Martyr," or the crumpled bodies in the two renderings of the Sabra and Shatila massacre by Adnan Yahya and Jumana Husseini. Others are reflections of beauty and hope, such as Abdal Rahman Mozayen's "Beautiful Women of Palestine."

In the West, we often read about Palestinians--if we read about them at all--as violent caricatures or as statistics in a deadly conflict. This rich collection of art and poetry delivers a view of the Palestinian experience that resonates with the reader on a heart level. Each voice introduces a unique dimension to what is, in essence, a piece of an ongoing conversation on identity, land, struggle, and survival.

This is a moving collection of poems, raps, drawings, and paintings. I appreciated the recognition that modern poetry comes in many varied genres, some of which are at times under-appreciated.

I was required to sit with this work, and ruminate. Repeatedly I was drawn to a poem or picture that required me to pause, to selah, to consider. Sometimes it was the pain of Palestinians during al Nakba. Sometimes it was the awareness of their love of the land, and the beauty of Palestine. Sometimes it was raw anger and hatred towards oppressors. Sometimes it was awareness of love towards fellow brothers. But always it insisted on a searching of one's soul, a painful and deeper pursuit of truth, an awareness of the experience of the other- which at times might contradict one's own experience. The best of poetry challenges us and does not allow us to continue in the complacency of our own reality. It asks us to engage the uncomfortability of growth. It takes us to understanding, the first step towards love.

This is some of the best of poetry.

This book, "Poets for Palestine" contains four dozen poems and several dozen reprints of artwork, interspersed, so often complemented one another. I am a non-fiction reader, usually, so, reviewing poetry brings me back 25 years... Most of the poetry is very masterful. Reading, grabbing, pulling, bringing the reader to a state of discomfort. It's not the kind of reading that is meant to bring one to a state of peace. It is, rather, masterful poetry and artwork designed to help the reader to, usually on a more idiological or individual basis, see the injustices of the current circumstances - while mostly in Palestine, but, well beyond. It helps the reader to realize injustices. Often, it approaches, as Fox News purports, a more fair and balanced reporting than do the other sides. If the reader is looking for a work to inspire, provoke, or work one's way through the western media blitzkrieg, then this book is highly recommended. This work is not designed to bring about further acts of injustice - it is a reflection on the past injustices alone. A planet of peace is the goal. Imagine the discussions, the advancement of the Palestinian cause, the bringing to peace, if such a masterpiece were in the hands of every American and Israeli child. I give this 5 stars, 7 stars if I could. The quality of the paper is excellent for poetry but just "good" for art reproductions. Outstanding!

Poets for Palestine, edited by Remi Kanazi is a chapbook (short, inexpensive collection) of poetry and graphic art reproductions with particular focus on the significance of social, political and armed violence on the lives of both those who suffer violence and those who inflict it.

There are 47 poems by 37 poets, and 30 examples of graphic art by 22 artists providing a rich selection. Many of the poets and artists may readily be found on-line. Brief biographical items are given for the poets but no information is given about the artists. The art and poetry are thematically coordinated.

The poets and artists are of diverse backgrounds but most are recognized as leaders in peace and justice work. The themes include torture, rape, terrorism, and deprivation of many kinds interwoven with images of healing, reconciliation, and new visions.

In a short introduction the editor says, "I sought to unite a younger generation of poets, spoken artists, and hip-hop artists with those who, for decades have used their words to elevate the consciousness of humanity."

This collection is recommended to any who wish to better understand the dynamics of human suffering and gain the vision to end violence and rise above it.