Middle Eastern Poetry and Conflict: Voices of the People

Introduction: Poetry as a Voice of Record

Middle Eastern poetry is often marked by honest assessments of the physical and emotional turmoil of conflict. Poetry in the Middle East tends to serve as a voice of record, offering stylistic descriptions of the conflicts of mind, body, and spirit that demonstrate a life — or many lives — caught in turmoil and change. Middle Eastern writers tend to write about the conflict they see and feel, much like photojournalists seeking to bring to others a reality that exists outside the mundane that can be seen in both peaceful and warring nations.

We know that in the search for freedom, justice, and peace, people are often caught in violence and war. Yet it is precisely this paradox of war and peace that has generated mythologies and literatures. These peace-war paradoxes, mythologies, and literatures are inextricably intertwined. As Meena Alexander writes in her memoir Fault Lines: "True poetry must be attentive to violence. It must listen and hear. Our lines must be supple enough to figure out violence, vent it, and pass beyond." (Cooke and Rustomji-Kerns xxi)

No topic is off limits and no language is devoid of the subtle and overt meanings associated with human trials — cultural, economic, political, and social. Many Middle Eastern authors feel a fierce obligation to write not only about the joy and struggle of writing poetry but also about the trials and conflicts of their nations. In the works of Ozkan Mert (Turkish), Taha Muhammad Ali (Palestinian), Eliaz Cohen (Israeli), and Aharon Shabtai (Israeli), one can locate the human drama of living in strife as well as the pleasure of poetic expression.

Each of these writers expresses the nature of the self, the body of the self, and the nature of political and social upheaval as it is felt by both the individual and the collective. Each may be writing from an opposing side, but their views are clearly not opposing. Their voice is one that asks those who would seek to subvert them to listen — to hear the voice of the individual seeking personal reconciliation in the face of conflict. The Middle Eastern conflict is a constant point of discussion in every arena, and the words of these poets exemplify that the voice rarely heard is the voice of the people: the individual bodies and souls who live every day facing the consequences of conflict and the harsh realities of political decision-making.

Ozkan Mert and the Power of Poetry

Ozkan Mert perhaps best exemplifies the passion and power of poetry as a simple form that can convey meaning beyond the limits of its length or even its breadth. In his poem "Who's on the Side of Poetry," Mert expresses the fear that some have of poetry as a tool people use to articulate strife — often when many would prefer that such strife not become public knowledge:

"Governments and armies / dislike poetry // Holy books, prophets and laws / dislike poetry // Philosophers shrink from poetry / For poetry / will steal philosophy's bread // Virgin nuns / secretly fondle poetry // But poetry does not care: // it owes nothing to no one // It brews a storm / in the steps of history / and walks its own way // Poetry loves all." — Ozkan Mert (translated from the Turkish by Feyyaz Kayacan) (Mert NP)

No other poem by Mert better expresses the poet's heart — the desire to look outside oneself, take the information within, and express that which cannot otherwise reach other human ears. In this work, Mert expresses the need to allow poetry to love all through its expression of that which armies and religious scholars find most fearful: the truth as seen from the front lines of conflict and everyday life. Mert assigns the poet a duty: to express that which many wish never to be expressed, to brew storms as they step through history.

Mert answers the question his poem poses — the poet is on the side of poetry, and the poet is strongly sided with the people: the everyday people who shoulder the conflicts created by larger forces and by fear.

Aharon Shabtai has been known for many years as a poet of great candor and a writer with the desire to express beauty in the mundane as well as strife in conflict. One commentator described Shabtai's work Le Poème domestique as a collection that develops a sense of the joy of poetic expression. Not touching too intensely on political or social strife, the work is a collection of short, interconnected poems about household objects. Shabtai begins it with a piece announcing the purpose of the collection: "I write // a poetry // free / of ambiguity // my subject // is // a soul / striking root." (Taylor 384)

Aharon Shabtai: Beauty, the Mundane, and Division

Taylor also notes that the work is written in Hebrew, creating an interesting juxtaposition between the joy of writing about everyday beauty and the conflict that Shabtai expresses in his more political works — such as his discussion of the commercialization of the Yishuv ideal that has occurred in Israel. (Karlinsky 25)

In the poem "Our Land," Shabtai beautifully expresses his desire, and that of others, to meet the "other" across the fence. After a lyrical description of characters from his boyhood village, Shabtai describes Arabs and Jews as belonging to a single body:

"For we belong // to a single body --- // Arabs and Jews. // Tel Aviv and Tulkarem, Haifa and Ramallah --- // what are they // if not a single pair of shoulders, twin breasts? // We quarreled // like the body parts of the man // ...Through the cracks in the earth, // we'll look up at you then; // under your feet // our land is being harrowed // with chains of steel, // and above your heads there is no sky // like a light-blue shirt --- // but only the broad buttocks of the // murderer." (Shabtai 15)

Shabtai expresses the hope and joy of reconciliation through the eyes of a child, and then shows those hopes dashed by human conflict, steel fences, and restricted worlds — where shoulders never meet but instead remain embroiled in hostility. This poem eloquently captures the conflict between Arab and Jew in Palestine and Israel, sheltering the idea of individuals with shared communities being turned into separate worlds by division, hostility, and fear.

In both his domestic works and in this later poem, Shabtai gives voice to the everyday person — often with a name and a place in the world — watching as his land is cleaved from that of his neighbor by fear. He offers an image of early hope and cooperation that ends in division and strife, so that what begins as a vision of a bright cooperative future is ultimately crushed by murder and reactionary political forces.

Conclusion: The Poets' Shared Humanity

Middle Eastern poets are rich in insight and their poetry is rich in understanding and expression. They seek to meld the ideals and standards of their culture with the effects of conflict upon the individual man and woman living within it — people trying, in themselves, to see the beauty in the mundane while feeling the conflict that surrounds and shapes their lives, regardless of their real involvement in it. They write of the joy of poetic expression, the power of its defiance, and the ability of words to filter through immense conflict and concern through simple, symbolic language of joy, fear, hatred, and hope.