A Missourian by birth...

 Tree Swenson, Executive Director of the Academy of American Poets, announced  today that Naomi Shihab Nye and Marie Ponsot have been elected to the Board of Chancellors, the Academy's advisory board of distinguished poets. Nye is a Missourian by birth having been born in born in St. Louis in 1952. She makes her home in Texas now but has been described as a a citizen of the world.  Her poetry often crosses borders and fosters understanding.  I know little of Marie Ponsot but Nye is truly a wonderful ambassador for poetry everywhere.

The Poetry of Mahmoud Darwish

I wonder how many know of Mahmoud Darwish? He was not a poet I was familiar with until his recent death hit the news. Of course there are perhaps as many poets who escape my knowledge as there are grains of sand, but few with the lyrical power of words that seem to be embodied in his work.

He is not without controversy, which the circumstances of his life perhaps contribute more to than the tone of his poetry. At least that which I have seen.

A Palestinian born in what is today Israel was a factor that was destined to have enormous influence upon his life and ultimately how he would be viewed by others.

He was taught by his grandfather to read and write, his mother being illiterate. It was as early as age seven that he began writing poetry and the lessons of a lifetime of loss swell in his work.

In an editorial by written by As'ad AbuKhalil this month, Darwish is described as "...comfortable in Hebrew and had relations in Israeli society. But as an Arab Palestinian in a state based upon religious supremacy and privileges, he could only stand at a distance: he could only stay in the inferior status still reserved for Arab citizens of the state."

Darwish became regarded as the Palestinian national poet. His writing revered by the Palestinian people. Christina Patterson writing for the Independent writes that poetry is regarded as a pastime for the lost and lonely people of Palestine.

Between 1961 and 1967, Darwish was reportedly jailed by Israelis five times. There were many times he was under house arrest. The obstacles encountered seemed only to increase his writing output. People familiar with his work say he was far more interested in growing his literary abilities than pleasing the many Palestinian readers who became critical when he traveled to the Soviet Union or elsewhere to study and write. If they felt an abandonment, he never saw it that way.

Mahmoud Darwish died in Houston, Texas on August 9, 2008 three days following heart surgery. With this post, I hope to better familiarize many Americans who enjoy and appreciate a bit of a glimpse at who he was and his work. I believe, at least that which I have seen, is extraordinary.

I found this statement by the poet Naomi Shihab Nye on Poets.org about him. "Mahmoud Darwish is the Essential Breath of the Palestinian people, the eloquent witness of exile and belonging, exquisitely tuned singer of images that invoke, link, and shine a brilliant light into the world's whole heart. What he speaks has been embraced by readers around the world—his in an utterly necessary voice, unforgettable once discovered."

Here are some resources to lean more about Darwish's work:

Two Poems By Mahmoud Darwish translated by Fady Joudah /Sonnet VI & Two Stranger Birds in Our Feathers

I Didn't Apologize to the Well

A Noun Sentence

With the Mist So Dense on the Bridge

Under Siege

Quotations:

"I will continue to humanize even the enemy... The first teacher who taught me Hebrew was a Jew. The first love affair in my life was with a Jewish girl. The first judge who sent me to prison was a Jewish woman. So from the beginning, I didn't see Jews as devils or angels but as human beings." Several poems are to Jewish lovers. "These poems take the side of love not war,"

"I thought poetry could change everything, could change history and could humanize, and I think that the illusion is very necessary to push poets to be involved and to believe, but now I think that poetry changes only the poet."

"We should not justify suicide bombers. We are against the suicide bombers, but we must understand what drives these young people to such actions. They want to liberate themselves from such a dark life. It is not ideological, it is despair."

"Why are we always told that we cannot solve our problem without solving the existential anxiety of the Israelis and their supporters who have ignored our very existence for decades in our own homeland?"

*source of quotes: Wikipedia

Technorati Tags: Mahmoud Darwish,Palestinians,poet,poetry,Israel,Naomi Shihab Nye

Awakening

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

~Carl Jung

When the name Naomi Shihab Nye comes up at one of the meetings of our local chapter of the Missouri Poetry Society, eyes around the room generally light up. In fact there is quite possibly no other living poet who invokes such universal positive response. Oh we all have our favorites and what I like, another may not be so fond of. I think most of us have at one time or another seen Ney in person and the gentle qualities of this woman are remarkably contagious.

Ney is a person who is not only at peace with herself, she is at peace with the world. She describes herself as a wandering poet and she has traveled extensively. She has ties to Missouri but most recently has been living in Texas where she works with children in elementary schools. Her heritage is a mixture American and Middle Eastern ancestry, which brings a unique perspective to her view of the world and her writing as well.

Regis Behe writing in a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article relates how Nye sees her mission as allowing everyone to experience poetry and to counter the myth that it is elitist or the province of intellectuals. She wants others to awaken their own poetry and to remember language can be very sustaining even when you feel very alone.

Balance

Woke up this morning to my wife reminding me not to miss New Letters (a radio program produced locally and aired at 6am Sundays on our local NPR affiliate, KCUR FM) This weeks program was an interview with Naomi Shihab Nye that was taped last year when she was in Kansas City. Missourians have a bit of a claim on Nye as she was born in St. Louis. (an insignificant fact to my post, but my over functioning self will take over on occasion).

I think it was maybe three, perhaps four years ago that I first was introduced to her when she spoke was a featured speaker at a writers conference here in town. Even aside from her poetry, she is a dynamic personality. I believe her to be an individual who truly breathes the experience of poetry and this I contend makes it hard if not impossible to separate the person from the poet.

If I were looking for a diplomatic representative to a foreign country, any country, Naomi Shihab Nye would possess the necessary temperament to break through the toughest of barriers and actually be able to achieve meaningful dialogue.

What I like about Ney is her understanding of the total range of human emotion. She is not oblivious to pain and suffering but she always seems to be looking for a way past it. With her ancestral connection to the Middle East, this is a remarkable feat. The lines from here 1994 poem Jerusalem are a testament to this... "I'm not interested in / who suffered the most. / I'm interested in / people getting over it."

In reading an interview with Nye in Pedestal Magazine.com I caught the following line which reaffirms my belief that she indeed lives day-to-day in a poetry realm: "Balance is more important than anything. I am sure I lose my balance every day. Poetry—reading it, usually—is what helps us find it again." Could it be that this is the true value to each of us in National Poetry Month? A time for us to center ourselves, to find balance in life?