Finished this poetry collection last night. The poetry is impactful, some truly great, and definitely an important, heartbreaking look into Gaza: Most of the poems are published (on paper) here first and largely written after the beginning of the current Israeli-Gaza war. All poets are Palestinian, some in Gaza, some outside, and two killed during the current war: Hiba Abu Nada and Refaat Alareer.
The key quote is already on the cover page, the last four lines of Lines Without a Home by Marwan Makhoul:
I order for me to write poetry that isn’t
political, I must listen to the birds
and in order to hear the birds
the warplanes must be silent
Out of Gaza: New Palestinian Poetry. Edited by Alan Morrison and Atef Alshaer. Smokestack Books (2024)
Thoughts?