GAZA
The
current situation in Palestine/Israel is complicated and disturbing… horrifying,
really. As with the Vietnam War of my childhood, I see the horror unfolding
nightly on the news, and whenever I look at a newspaper or turn on the radio.
It seems, as the war in Vietnam did, endless and inescapable. Incomprehensible,
from our distance. And, frustrating as
our government’s inaction may be, the events to which we are witness would
leave us feeling powerless, whatever we or our governments did. Which is not to
say that we should stop calling for action – for a cease fire, first of all. To
cease adding fuel to the fire, to cease validating the aims and actions of
those who are motivated primarily by hate. My aim is not to promote apathy or nihilism.
It is merely to acknowledge, as writers/artists, the place where words fail us,
where the work of making art seems not to cut it in terms of bringing about the
change the world desperately needs.
But
what are we to do? Can the picture of a tree save a tree from the chainsaw? Surely
our work is to focus the hearts and minds. And in a world where care and
compassion and truth have been devalued to the extent we have seen recently,
maybe we do just have to keep bashing our heads against the wall of hate.
Political
poems are a tricky gig at the best of times. There is precisely ‘the
sledgehammer risk’ of bashing the readers’ head with a holier-than-thou ‘do
this!’ or ‘think that’ approach – disobeying, in other words, the dramaturg’s
prime directive – don’t tell me! show
me! I guess that’s what we have to do.
We have to show our readers the uncomfortable truths and facts … and
then, it’s over to them!
In
the current circumstances, a lot of the facts and footage required are already
at the reader’s disposal. But the reader is – as was the case with Vietnam –
numb from the constant barrage.
I
thought of the idea of writing a poem about Gaza, structured around a series of
questions. I’m not sure if these are the right questions (or in the right
order), and of course there can be many more.
GAZA
the
questions
What
is terror?
Who
is a terrorist?
Who
can protect us from terror?
What
is genocide?
Who is
a Semite?
Who is an anti-semite?
Who is Islamaphobic?
Why is one of these anti- and the other -phobic?
Who
has a right to defend themselves?
Which
states have a right to exist?
Should
we believe everything in old books?
How
did we get to here?
What
are weapons made of?
What
are weapons for?
When
is material part of a weapon?
Who
believes that more weapons make peace?
What
are the characteristics of a monster?
Who
are the best people in the world?
Who
are the worst?
Can a
cause be killed?
When
did this thing start?
How
long can it go on?
How
many more have to die?
To
whom should we be listening?
Who
has a right to the truth?
Who
has a duty to tell?
Will
truth set us free?
Will the Gaza Strip really make a great tourist resort when all the people who live there are gone?
What does it say in the Bible? Hw about Samson and Delilah?
Is
there anything I can do?
Can
words make a difference?
What
does silence do?
I’m
not sure whether the resulting poem would or should consist of only answers or
a combination of questions and answers, but I thought this might be a structure
with which to kick off the process.
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