The Definition of Poetry

FOR MOSAB ABU TOHA, WHOSE ENTIRE LIFE AND BODY OF WORK, INCLUDING HIS NEW COLLECTION, FOREST OF NOISE, HAVE BEEN SHAPED BY VIOLENCE, CONFLICT, AND WAR, POETRY IS NOT ABOUT POETS; IT IS A WAY FOR ALL OF US TO DOCUMENT, TO REMEMBER, TO INVENTORY, TO ENDEAVOR TO UNDERSTAND, AND TO EXPRESS—TO HOPE AND TO ACT—IN TIMES OF TERRIBLE SUFFERING.

DESTINY O. BIRDSONG

FORTY-FIVE MINUTES into my Zoom interview with Mosab Abu Toha, a Palestinian poet and teacher who is the founder of the Edward Said Public Library, the first English-language library in Gaza, a door opens off-screen. Moments later a small hand clutches the poet’s shoulder. It is four-year-old Mostafa, who, after coming in earlier to say hello, has now returned with a very urgent question. “Papa, where is Yaffa?” he asks. Yaffa is Mostafa’s seven-year-old sister. After Abu Toha suggests Mostafa check downstairs, it becomes clear to me that every aspect of the poet’s life and work, from his new poetry collection, Forest of Noise, published by Knopf in October, to this adorable interruption, has been marked by the brutality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Born in Gaza’s Al-Shati refugee camp in 1992,…

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Poets & Writers (Digital) - 1 Issue, November/December 2024

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