Someone else's voice

The Activists by Ramon Rodriguez, oil on canvas; photo courtesy of the Blue Rain Gallery, Taos, New Mexico.

The Poetry Thursday challenge is to "write like anyone but you." This poem was inspired by an article September 9 in The Independent, London about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.The Israeli military and economic siege of Gaza has led to dire straits for Palestinians. Salaries have gone unpaid for six months; medical care is extremely limited and food, water and electricity resources are scarce.

Someone else's voice

Can you hear any voice other than your own?
Do you have any idea what we must endure
day after day, night after night,
with gunfire and explosions shaking the foundations;
reality's horror rivaling our worst nightmares?

Do you know what it means
to work every day for six months and not get paid,
because a blockade of shipments have created bankruptcy?
Do you understand what it's like
to try to feed your family when the market shelves are empty?

Would you share our frustration
if your child couldn't go to school
and learn how to stand up for himself
in a dangerous land of uncertainty,
because the electricity's cut and the road blocked?

Do you know what it is to walk miles for work,
petrol supplies long suspended?
Forced to run through a residential neighbourhood,
in the midst of a military raid-and-rout,
risking a bullet in the crossfire.

While the international community fails to act,
handicapped by politics and semantics,
do you understand the pain we feel
when we can't get a feverish child to hospital,
past a barricade guarded by soldiers?

Do you accept the bitterness poisoning our hearts
each time we have to bury another victim;
each time a relative is picked up
and sent to jail for questioning,
never to be seen again?

Can you imagine what it's like
to carve a life in this tiny strip of troubled land?
To feel powerless, at the mercy and will
of a brutal armed force,
caring little for our human rights?

Comments

[Marilyn]

Thank you for this powerful and poignant reminder.

[January]

What a powerful poem, Tara. Wish it weren't true.

[Kate]

very touching. Thanks!

[Rel]

Your Thur. poem is right on the money again.
rel

[tinker]

Why isn't it possible for everyone to just allow each other to live? Isn't life hard enough, without us making it harder on each other?
Thank you, Tara, for a powerfully poignant poem - and for continuing to put a human face on politics and current events.

[bb]

*Do you accept the bitterness poisoning our hearts
each time we have to bury another victim;*

You have a true talent for capturing the human heart Tara.

Beautiful brutal and necessary poem

x x x

[Michelle]

Your entire post was important but this part really hit home:
"Do you accept the bitterness poisoning our hearts
each time we have to bury another victim;
each time a relative is picked up
and sent to jail for questioning,
never to be seen again?"

Thanks for your perspective. It helps to ground me and I am sure it does the same for everyone else fortunate enough to read your work.

[Mirvat]

to try and 'carve a life' while everything works against you and while even the idea of a life is not offered to you just for the fact that you were born a palestinian.
very powerful words T. you truly have a gift.

[wendy]

you have a gift, the gift of being able to give voice to others.An authentic voice. your subjects are so global..yet your poems so intimate and immediate.

[Jessie]

Holy Cawrolly! You've been writing like a manaic! Powerful poems, beautiful images, thoughtful posts....dang! I'm impressed. Your thoughtfulness and sensitivity, each time, makes me wish you were the President. Can I vote for you even though you're living in Paris? ;)

And Happy, Happy belated Birthday!!!! Darnit! I can't believe I missed the big day! Well, this way it last longer. Right? :) Lots of birthday love to you!

[Gattina]

I can imagine but I prefer not doing it.

[Elisabeth]

A beautiful post! And I wish you a very happy belated birthday, from one Virgo to another!

[Becca]

We can't imagine - if only we all could walk in another's shoes, perhaps the world would be different.

[Gabi]

This is fabulous. I can't imagine it all 1st hand but my inlaws can since that is where they used to live before immigrating to the usa in the late 1950's.
I have been there (1997) and have see it 1st hand.. both sides of it actually when we visited the Arab and Jewish quarters of Jerusalem and other parts of Israel.
Gorgeous country, people, just terribly sad that they can't seem to figure out how to get along........
lovely piece.
XO
Gabi

[leonie]

what a powerful message you have written in your poem. beautiful, thought-provoking and reminds me to appreciate what a wonderful life i have living in a safe country. i pray for peace and focus on spreading love.

[madeleine]

if only this perspective could be heard and understood by the people who should. i can't help but be moved by your powerful words and sentiment. More of us should be speaking out on their behalf.

(from one night owl to another!)
xxx

[Tammy]

Beautiful job on this piece :) Sadly if the world could imagine they would be moved to act. Your words are thought provoking and make me wonder what I can do.

[twitches]

I think this is just lovely.

[Richard]

Brava!

[Sophie]

deeply touching.

human rights indeed and you always
capture the human heart.

[jojo]

thank you for sharing this. too often we forget the "other" victims the ones who endure the tradgedies of everyday life.

[Di]

You capture the reality of the horror of Gaza ... I'm so glad that people are talking of it and not blindly accepting the information that has been ascendent for so long.

Lovely work Tara.

[Chelle Y.]

I think we forget sometimes when we are having difficulties that other people may have it worse.

This is a great reminder to "care!"

[Amber]

"While the international community fails to act,
handicapped by politics and semantics,
do you understand the pain we feel
when we can't get a feverish child to hospital,
past a barricade guarded by soldiers?"--

Wow. This was really touching.
...God, how I hate politics, and how human beings get lost in it.

:)

[diana]

what a great exercise ... to speak in another's voice...
step in another's shoes... a practice that is good for all of us.

[Lisa]

I am awed at the power of your poem and the way you literally became the "voice" of those we never hear.
xoxo

[bella]

Tara, this was so strong and powerful. I can't imagine. That's the sad part. People, in this day and age are living like this - in war torn countries.
You know, it's very similar to the civil war in the former Yugoslavia back in the early '90's. The people there are changed forever.
Thank you for sharing this.

[Deborah]

Dear Tara ... what a powerful poem, showing a political crisis from the minds eye of a person, a parent, a worker, an individual trying to struggle and survive in a horrific situation.
Thank you for your strong images and words. You are so talented and lovely.
xo, d

[Jos]

This is a powerful piece.

And, I think the sad answer to each of these questions would be "no" by most people.

Truly heart wrenching.

[tongue in cheek]

giving peace a chance by praying often for it.

[Catherine]

That is very strong - though I'd have to say from having read your blog that your own voice shines through

[Catalina]

.....touching...strong.......Thank you again Tara! It is true that in general, when it doesn't happens to us..........we don't realise how difficult or important may be........