Mosab Abu Toha: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear

       for Alicia M. Quesnel, MD

I.

When you open my ear, touch it

gently.

My mother’s voice lingers somewhere inside.

Her voice is the echo that helps recover my equilibrium

when I feel dizzy during my attentiveness.

 

You may encounter songs in Arabic,

poems in English I recite to myself,

or a song I chant to the chirping birds in our backyard.

 

When you stitch the cut, don’t forget to put all these back in my ear.

Put them back in order as you would do with books on your shelf.

 

II.

The drone’s buzzing sound,

the roar of an F-16,

the screams of bombs falling on houses,

on fields, and on bodies,

of rockets flying away—

rid my small ear canal of them all.

 

Spray the perfume of your smiles on the incision.

Inject the song of life into my veins to wake me up.

Gently beat the drum so my mind may dance with yours,

my doctor, day and night.

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Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet, short-story writer, and essayist from Gaza. His first collection of poetry, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and won the Palestine Book Award, the American Book Award, and the Walcott Poetry Prize. Abu Toha is also the founder of the Edward Said Library in Gaza. He recently won an Overseas Press Club Award for his “Letter from Gaza” columns for The New Yorker.  His writings from Gaza have appeared in The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The New York Review, among others. His second poetry book, Forest of Noise, is forthcoming from Knopf in October 2024. [Author photo credit: Mohamed Mahdy]

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                                                               Sliman Mansour, Mother and Her Child (أم وطفلها), oil on canvas, 2016.

Comments

[Bill Nevins]

"Gently beat the drum so my mind may dance with yours" Free Palestine! US/Israeli bombs out- now! Ceasefire NOW!
Beautiful loving poem. Thank you.

[Bernard Welt]

It’s hard to write anything that connects global events to the personal, harder still when they are cataclysmic. Mosab Abu Tohab does it with the universal sensations any reader can feel. We all have bodies. That’s where mutual understanding begins.

[Cindy Hochman]

A perfect poem to post on Mother's Day. This poem incorporates a warm and beautiful tenderness. Thank you for this Mosab, and as always, Terence. I will come back to this wonderful poem again and again. PEACE, SALAM, SHALOM.

[Terence Winch]

Cindy: thank you for your comment.

[Indran Amirthanayagam]

Beautiful, Mosab. Your witness from and into Gaza keeps our humanity alive before the horror, the evil.

[Nin Andrews]

Beautiful and powerful--a perfect choice for this Mother's Day. Thank you Terence and Mosab!

[Alise Alousi]

Yes to this poem and to everything Mosab is doing every minute of every day. Thinking of the mothers in Palestine, especially Hind's mother and the mothers of the student protesters who are acting with conscience while putting their futures on the line to stop the genocide and our complicity in it.

[Anne Harding Woodworth]

At this time, especially, a poem like this one is needed desperately. Mothers' voices do linger for many, and that helps prevent the dangerous ugly, so that dancing in peace becomes a possibility. Thanks for such a beautiful necessary poem on this day for all mothers.

[George O'Brien]

Great choice, Terry. And congratulations on number 200 (wow!)

[Terence Winch]

Nin:  Thanks for the comment.

[Jennifer O’R]

Beautiful

[Grace Cavalieri]

heartbreaking and hearthealing.

[Eileen Reich]

Beautiful. “My mother‘a voice lingers somewhere inside” is my favorite line. The artwork is perfect. Love the poem.

[Joan Retallack]

Thank you so much for this both beautiful and harrowing poem. It is instructive for all who care about the Palestinian peoples, under unparalleled siege, who need our help now. The weekly broadcasts of Democracy Now are an excellent guide to what is actually going on in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

[Clarinda]

So tender and yet incisive. Pun sort of intended ….

[Patrick Clancy]

Terry: So very appropriate. You took your selection this week to the 200th power. Many thanks. (Made me cry.)

[Terence Winch]

Patrick: thanks for that comment.

[David Beaudouin]

This poem has been fluttering around in my head for the past two days. Painful and beautiful in equal measure. Thank you, Mosab and Terence!

[Terence Winch]

Thanks for the comment, David.