Not Gazan


If you wake up and find yourself
On your mattress, in one piece,
Looking forward to living the day,
You are outrageously lucky
'Cause you're not a Gazan
Born and cuddled in the arms of death.

And if, upon every sunrise,
You are able to open your eyes
To a blue sky, not foggy grey,
You are dreadfully lucky
'Cause you're not a descendant,
Of a lifelong branded type.

And if, when the day dawns,
Your ears do not go deaf
From the firework frenzies
That wipe off earth's features,
You are awfully lucky
'Cause you're not your own enemy.

And if, in between daily dealings,
You can manage to smile to strangers,
Make your daily purchases to get by,
And proclaim a few opinions on life,
You are hideously lucky
'Cause your life is a relative luxury.

Nevertheless, you are gruesomely lucky,
'Cause despite your fortunate being,
You must survive the coincidental guilt
Of being yourself and not
A condemned, tracked, and raided,
Nobody, 'cause you're not Gazan!


p.s. Thank you Joe, Peter, and Terry, each for a different reason.

K.Q.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/2022 03:49PM by lifeisbutadream.

It is simple, poignant and perfectly describes the chaos of feelings of all who can't take action.

Our empathy and thoughts are with them.

Much appreciated,
Startle

Your reading and response is much appreciate, Sara. Thank you!

K.Q.

Beautifully stated, K.Q. All of us are thinking of those living in harm's way. Poetry is usually ahead of politics when it comes to humanitarian concerns.

Peace be with you.


Les

Khalida:

Thank you.

Joe

Thank you Les, for reading and commenting. I appreciate it.
Joe, many thanks to you. I appreciate your encouragement and support.

Yes, Khalida, I acknowledge that Australia, where I live, is a "lucky country", though there's plenty of suffering here if you search for it.

And, sadly, Gaza is not the only place in the world where people have a miserable existence by comparison. You don't have to look far in Africa.

Sadly also, there are complex obstacles in the way of those who try to relieve the misery by spreading good fortune. I don't think it's realistic or fair or helpful to expect people to feel guilty because they are not miserable.

You have nevertheless written a passionate, powerful and well constructed poem. It deserves to be enhanced by the removal of one spelling blemish. In the very last line "your" should be "you're". (You got it right in each of the first three stanzas!)

Ian

Emmmmm. I still don't understand why the reasonable people over there have allowed that to continue this long. Do this just leave the country, let the crazies kill each other off?

Thank you Ian for your comment and very observant eye! I fixed my mistake.
It is true that Gaza is not the only place on earth suffering, nevertheless it is.
As for the last part and the idea of guilt, I always feel guilty for not being able to help even when in reality I can't. I just simply always feel it is my responsibility to. Those were my feelings. therefore, it is not people who are expected to consciously do so, but some do as it happens!


Having said that, Percival, I simply do not wish to answer you. I never feel you are serious about anything in addition to other reasons, therefore, I have taken the decision not to get into any discussions with you.

K.Q.

Perhaps it's just the way Percival phrased it that would make you think it was not a serious remark, however, many of us (or our parents or grandparents)who are now Americans were forced out of (or felt that the best decision was to leave) what were our homelands.

Granted, it was a lot easier to get here 100 years ago, but still...if it were me, I'd bug out to somewhere in a flash

Johnny, look up this site, perhaps it will clarify: www.ifamericansknew.com

K.Q.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/2022 12:37PM by lifeisbutadream.

Indeed, I take things lightly, but there's good reason for this, I assure you. I find that people who take things too seriously are often unwilling to be wrong, whether they are really right or not.

Thanks Khalida for a great poignant poem.
its hard getting people to realize the gravity of the matter, because it doesnt hit home for them like it does with us.

every death caused by war should be taken seriously. especially those wars targeting innocent civilians.

Ah, but serious is exactly what I'm being. I'm saying that anyone who can't take a joke often times can't think properly. So 47, since K is ignoring me, what's your opinion on this whole situation? Can't find a solution unless things are talked over, after all.

They can hold all the peace talks they want, but there will never
be peace in the Middle East. Billions of years from now, when Earth
is hurtling toward the Sun and there is nothing left alive on the
planet except a few microorganisms, the microorganisms living in
the Middle East will be bitter enemies.
-- Dave Barry, "25 Things I Have Learned in 50 Years"

Subtle Johnny, very subtle.

yeah, like a German Metal band

Those make me laugh. The language just sounds so poofy when sung.

Personally, I am fascinated by German covers of popular songs

I don't know, I just heard some Ramstien and could not for the life of me stop laughing.

Coca-cola, wonder-bra!

I have somwhere Dusty Springfield, Johnny Cash, The Beatles, and Peter Gabriel actually singing in German, as well as oddball covers of Pink Floyd and a few others

I am a fervent enemy of all things Beatles.

Haven't you given me enough reasons to despise you without adding this to the pile?

I can't help it, they deserve little more than to be titled, "above average". Their moderate abilities aside, I hate druggy music. It's like babysitting.

I have no solution, sadly Im not that wise.
all I know is that, for hundreds of years, muslims and jews and christians co-existed in Palestine and in the Mid East. what people dont realize is that, muslims are not really against Jews, muslims are against zionists. Muslims see Jews and Christians as bretherin in their faith. but when israel was founded on palestinian land, animosity started between these brothers in God. Israel started this, Israel in my personal opinion is not a Jewish state, its a zionist state claiming judiasm for support from other jews.
check the link below please:

[www.nkusa.org]

The current conflict, like the six day war, and most every other real short war that has occured in that area, like every stupid war since WWII, (not including that one), it doesn't matter a whit which side you choose, even peace for all. The one thing that comes to the surface is you CAN NOT GET TO THE TWO GUYS WHO STARTED IT. Others are going to die. Jewish civilians, Palestine civilians. Isreali military of course, Hamas of course, and maybe those two deserve it. But the little kids on the buses in Isreal don't deserve it, nor do the five year old Palastini kids playing the arab version of ring around the rosie.

I have a log book, I could look up the armed conflicts I've been involved in since 1969, but I am afraid of the number. I have a passport that expired three years ago, it was good for ten years and has 128 entry stamps in it. That is over ten a month. A lot of times I wasn't carrying a passport, and more often I wasn't carrying one that had my name in it. Probably 1/3 of those border crossings had to do with armed conflict. That's a guess. I'd also guess that maybe 1% of the time, one of the guys who started it paid what those involved paid. It can be a cruel world.

Yes, I do sleep nights.

'It can be a cruel world.'

That is the sad, sad truth. But my question is where do you draw the line? Why don't you draw the line? Why does one do what they do? And after the fight starts then what? How do you stop the evergrowing eruption?

Is peace acceptable without justice?

Appreciated,
Startle

Startle,

No fair, we were going to talk casually for a time. You seem to be a rather intelligent person, I wonder if you could help me with a problem I have? You see, that friend of mine I told you about, I think she has something of a crush on me. That is to say, I think she has romantic feelings toward me. But, being so very smart, much smarter than most of the people she's met, and certainly anyone her age, she has never been in love. Because of this, I think she is very uncomfortable with it, uncertain about how to handle the emotion. So I see her only very briefly from time to time, and she is very obtuse and cautious with her words and actions when I do see her.

Of course, I could be mistaken, she may merely be so intelligent that her actions are simply indecipherable to me. But my hunch is that I am correct in my estimations. For when we do meet, though she is very indirect, I feel that she is always driving at the same thing. It seems as if she takes a tiny step forward, then retreats as far away as possible, without losing sight of me. I think perhaps, being unaccustomed to a person equaling her intelligence, she doesn't know how to handle me. So, what do you think I should do in this situation?

So, what do you think I should do in this situation?

Write a poem about it...that's why we're all here.

This s just a note to wish you well, Khalida, and to remind you that the rest of the world will not just forget the conditions in Gaza just because it may not at the moment be the focus of the international news machine.

amo,

Peter

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2009 12:00AM by petersz.

Thanks a lot , Peter. I appreciate your note!
The studnets at school held a fund raising event recently to send monetary aid to the hospital in Gaza. Most of the items were handmade by students and teachers. One of our themes was selling Hope! I will attach a couple of photos.

not the focus of world attention