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Lisa Suhair Majaj: For the Dead Among Us
We will open the day for you,
and the night. We know
that you are beneath the earth,
or ash on the wind. But in
some space or time you still
live. Even as funeral bells
clang and the priest swings
the incense, the heart remembers
how to open. We will invite you
to the table to eat. We will light candles
on our mantlepieces and in
our hearts. We do not know
what messages of light and smoke
will reach you, but we will keep
sending them. We will keep you alive
in our longing, in our breath.
We will sing with you, together
in a space of music, even if you never
sang in life. Love finds a way.
It is not linear, with a destination,
a closure. Love starts over and over,
circling back to the source, the way
two people lose and find each other
repeatedly, but when they look
into each other’s eyes they see
each other—the light of recognition
that makes the world whole.
~~~~
Lisa Suhair Majaj, a Palestinian-American, is author of Geographies of Light (2008 Del Sol Press Poetry Prize), poems and essays in many journals and anthologies across the US, Europe, and the Middle East, and two children’s books. She is also a scholar of Arab-American literature and co-editor of three volumes of critical essays on Arab, Arab-American, and other international women of color writers. Her poetry has been translated into several languages, including Arabic, and was included in the 2016 exhibition Aftermath: The Fallout of War—America and the Middle East (Harn Museum of Art). Her grandmother was from Jaffa and her father was from Jerusalem. She lives in Cyprus.
Copyright 2024 Lisa Suhair Majaj
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Oh, how painful can be grief and how soothing are your words.
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yes, they are!
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Oh, how painful can be grief and how soothing are your words.
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“Love starts over and over,
circling back to the source…”
How beautiful, affirming – especially in this time of grief, loss and violence, especially among the innocent. Thank you Lisa.
Michael, you always know the poetry that heals.
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yes, poetry heals.
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“We do not know
what messages of light and smoke
will reach you, but we will keep
sending them. We will keep you alive
in our longing, in our breath.”
Yes. Yes.
LikeLiked by 3 people
“Love starts over and over,
circling back to the source,”
LikeLiked by 3 people
“We will sing with you, together
in a space of music, even if you never
sang in life. Love finds a way.”
I MUST believe love always does find a way…
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It must. It must…
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Thank you for your powerful poem.
At this grief-creating time in the world , it feels essential to remember what you say about the transcendence of love.
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Absolutely! Thanks, James.
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