By Joey Connolly
I ‘think’ giving and sharing poetry from countries at war will increase the breadth and depth of the ‘thanks we give’ for having such a beautiful and peaceful place to live in the CNMI. Right now millions of people on both sides of the wars in Gaza/Israel and Ukraine/Russia have no homes to return to after incessant bombing. They have lost loved ones, parents, brothers, sisters, teachers, and school classmates. Their hospitals, schools, and playgrounds have been bombed. They live in refugee camps with little food, lack of water and sanitation. Famine and starvation is commonplace. Some call it genocide. Here are some ‘thinks’ for us to reflect on by people from these countries this Thanksgiving weekend.
From Gaza: a poem by Mosab Abu Toha, born in a refugee camp in Palestine in 1992. He is now a teacher and poet at Syracuse University in upstate New York.
“If we stay in our houses they bomb us, If we shelter in a school they bomb us, If we run to a hospital they bomb us, If we move into a tent they bomb us, If we run from an air stike they bomb us, If we do not do any of this they still bomb us, If we remain standing like a tree or temporarily leave like a leaf in the fall, they bomb us. But spring will come and they, those who bomb us, will find no bombs among the flowers. We will be on the trees bathing in the sun next to the sparrow’s nests, and they, those who bomb us, will have no sun, no place to rest, no legs to run.”
From Israel: prose by Martin Buber, German-Jewish Israeli philosopher, born1878, died in Palestine in 1992. He advocated a bi-national Israeli -Palestine state.
“There are three principles in a man’s being and life, the principle of thought, the principle of speech, and the principle of action. The origin of all conflict between me and my fellow-men is that I do not say what I mean and I don’t do what I say.”
From Ukraine: Iryna Tsybuch, a Ukrainian paramedic, forever 24, in her farewell letter to her brother. These were the last three sentences in that letter:
“To have the strength to be a free person, you have to be brave. Only the brave have happiness; its better to die running than to live rotting. Be worthy of our hero’s exploits, don’t grieve, be brave!”
From Russia: Anna Akhmatova, born Odesa, Ukraine 1889. died in Russia, 1996.
She is one of the most beloved poets in Russia. Notice she was born in Ukraine, and we know Russia is reclaiming Ukraine. A major theme in her poetry is the impact of political events on individual lives. She avoided many Stalinist purges.
THE LAST TOAST by Anna Akhmatova
I drink to the ruined house, To the evil of my life
To our shared loneliness And I drink to you –
To the lie of lips that betrayed me
To the deadly coldness of the eyes,
To the fact that the world is cruel and depraved
To the fact that God did not save.”
Joey “Pepe Batbon” Connolly is a retired educator who taught in the CNMI, NOLA, and LVNV. He is the Poet Laureate of Tinian and enjoys stargazing.
