Poetry [in Fragments]
A few weeks ago, my friend Isabella and I had a collaging night where we each wrote a poem with phrases and words we cut out of ‘80s and ‘90s National Geographic magazines that I found in a little free library a block from my apartment. They’re not fully original, but not fully plagiarized; my poem includes phrases from an article on Jerusalem, an article on Indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, and an article on whales. I love “writing” like this because it forces me to step out of my creative comfort zone. Someone else is choosing my words, but I work to imbue new meaning and feeling.
Below are the poems we created. Each poem includes suggested music to play in the background while you read them. Thanks to my friend Mateo for helping identify the song for my poem.
Whose Land? Whose Truth?
arranged by Abaki Beck
[Song suggestion: Gyöngyhajú Iány by Omega; start at 0:19]
But what do “hope” and “future” really mean
In Hebrew, Arabic, and English, on every surface inside the bus and out,
he has scrawled “Peace…justice…oh, God, where are the rights of Man?”
On page after page has written the same question,
“Why was my house destroyed?”
What if you didn’t have to worry
“Stick together,” he said. “Stick together, or we’ll get lost.”
For indigenous communities,
“The land has great meaning.”
After weeks of such talk
I was convinced that I had the answer to world peace.
A New Day, a New Song
arranged by Isabella Irtifa
[Song suggestion: Agape by Nicholas Brittel]
It was raining, and water began seeping through the roof
Dark rich clouds moving
Wrapped in fog
Unbowed by earthquakes and war
Woman dancing alone, solemnly, ignoring the puddles, swaying
“Would you do me the honor of being my guests?”
Soon I detected a disruption in the rhythmic swaying of the dancers,
Everything seems different
They have reason to believe in miracles
Her handsome tanned face slowly opens into a smile. It is the smile of a poet.
“I dream.”