Mosab Abu Toha: my grandfather and home
my grandfather used to count the days for return with his fingers
he then used stones to count
not enough
he used the clouds birds people
Pascale Petit: A Mother Sings
I will rebirth her on banks of the river of life.
Only I have to wade through the river of thorns
while she sleeps.
I am her country and her lagoon.
Baron Wormser: Agony
The agony I feel about the events in Israel, an agony shared by millions around the planet, many of whom may never have entered a synagogue, is very real. I wake up at night and lie there, held fast by grief, impotence, anger, and despair.
Yehuda Amichai: The Place Where We Are Right
From the place where we are right
Flowers will never grow
In the spring.
Video: Sales Per Hour
A sales associate for a high-end fashion brand in New York City is sent into a tailspin of uncertainty after she overhears an unsettling encounter in one of the dressing rooms at work.
Michael Simms: House
You want to lie down in the lost field
of your courage and sleep
beside the blurred road of snow
Gertrude Stein: Two Poems
All this and not ordinary, not unordered in not resembling.
A Teacher in NYC Tells the Children, “Look for the Helpers”
We all must demand a ceasefire now. Our witnessing and demanding change is how we can all be helpers for all children.
Lisa Suhair Majaj: The Poem
The poem was found in the rubble
of a six-story residential building
in Khan Yunis, destroyed by a 2000
pound bomb that sent fire to the sky
and death to the burning earth.
Tony Gloeggler: Knowledge
He’s unaware he’s built
like a bowling pin,
that his shaved head shines
like Mr. Clean and everybody
stares when he waddles
Edward Hunt: U.S. Officials Care More About Protecting Oil Tankers than Palestinians
The Biden administration opposes a ceasefire, even as it repeatedly demands that the Houthis end their attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
Barbara Hamby: Athena Ode
Road diva, divine mixologist, cancan dancer
of the mandible wars, show me the way of mind
over what’s-the-matter-with-you, girl, swirling from mouths
of righteous dudes.
Barbara Hamby: St. Clare’s Underwear
there’s your average man, hirsute and raging with testosterone,
Godzilla incarnato, King Kong with big feet, Frankenstein
hovering over some delectable damsel with skin like fresh pastry
GEORGE YANCY: How Can Philosophy Speak to a World in Crisis? The Answer May Lie in Our Bodies
Whether we are ill, depressed, anxious, suffering from injustice, a refugee, incarcerated — having contact with beauty can lift our spirits, rehumanizing us.
