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‘Shiva: Poems of October 7’ Contains 59 Poems That Will Make You Cry
The personal belongings of festival-goers are seen at the site of an attack on the Nova Festival by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Oct. 12, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The introduction to the anthology Shiva: Poems of October 7, notes that the most common response to the Hamas attack of October 7 was “ain milim” — “there are no words.”
Rachel Korazim, Michael Bohnen, and Heather Silverman are the editors of the book, which contain numerous powerful poems that represent feelings of heartache all Israelis and Jews experienced on October 7.
Korazim, 78, said her time teaching poetry in English for many years at the Shalom Hartman Institute, Hebrew University, and online, has given her a wealth of experiences with students.
During the Covid pandemic, she grew a community of hundreds of poetry students.
“When October 7 hit, I realized I could not continue what I planned to teach, and I started collecting works [about what happened] on October 10,” Korazim told me in an interview.
She said that rabbis approached her to create a class, and one advised her to make an anthology. The editors refined and edited translations, and the book is now printed in Israel and available at Amazon.
People often assume that poetry can help people deal with issues emotionally, as a catharsis from trauma.
“I don’t read poetry as being anything but poetry,” Korazim said. “For some people, it is a catharsis. For other people, it’s just a way to express themselves. You didn’t have a tsunami of poetry after 9/11 in America. But we did have it now in Israel. Throughout our history, we have put high value on poetry. If you look at Jewish history and Israeli history, you will see waves of poetry in regular times but also after catastrophe.”
A portion of Ran Shayit’s “A Landscape Sketch Without Entering Into Graphic Details,” hits hard:
There are no words for this
A strong smell of suffocation from the depths of a well
Like The palms of a dead man
Holding onto the foundation of a house…”
Many recognize Rachel Goldberg-Polin for her pleas and media appearances as she advocated for her son Hersh, who was taken hostage. He was murdered by Hamas, and his body was recovered at the end of August.
Her poem, “One Tiny Seed,” includes:
There is a Yiddish lullaby that says “Your mother will cry a
Thousand tears before you grow to be a man.”
I have cried a million tears in the last 67 days. …
Our sea of tears
They all taste the same.
Can we take them gather them up, and remove the salt,
And then pour them over our desert of despair …
And plant one tiny seed
A seed wrapped in pain, trauma, fear and hope?
Osnat Eldar’s poem, “Sea Fragments,” begins with Psalm 93 and is dedicated to Romi Suissa, a six-year-old girl whose parents were murdered by Hamas.
Romi hid in the backseat, and was eventually rescued by a police officer in a now famous recording where she asks the man who saved her and her sister: “Are you Israeli?”
In another of Eldar’s poems, she writes:
Mothers
If only they could change places with the boy or the girl
Ready for captivity or death.
In “A Good Day,” Tal Shavit writes:
I want to turn myself into bulletproof vests
For all the fighters,
Become iron domes
Over the heads of all the girls,
Each and every one.
One of the most powerful images is depicted in Dael Rodrigues Garcia’s “A Fallen Soldier”:
A soldier is falling
Like a coin into a tzedakah box
He bumps into the copper coins
Secretly, he falls anonymously,
He saves from death
He rattles with his brothers
He kisses their faces
Crusted with the sweat of battle
And his father and mother stretch out their hands
Begging me to bring him back
Through the narrow
Slit.
Garcia explained that the poem was written before October 7, but having lived in Israel, he recognizes that, “the deep act of kindness done for you by others who protect you, which is often hidden, is the greatest act of charity.”
There are different ways that the human mind processes horror. This book is a gut-wrenching assessment of the fragility, vulnerability, and undeniability that despite the trauma we’ve experienced, those who are alive continue to live. Net proceeds of sales of the book will be donated to the Israel Trauma Coalition, which works with victims of October 7.
The author is a writer based in New York.
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Trump, Harris Tied 47%-47% in Final CNN Poll
Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump points towards Democratic presidential nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris, during a presidential debate hosted by ABC in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, Sept. 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris are tied at 47% each among likely voters, according to CNN’s last nationwide poll before the Nov. 5 election.
The poll, conducted by telephone Oct. 20-23 among 1,704 registered voters and released on Friday, had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points among likely voters and plus or minus 3.2 percentage points among the full sample of registered voters.
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2 Dead, Several Seriously Wounded After Hezbollah Rocket Hits Arab Israeli Town
The attack’s victims. Photo: i24 News
i24 News – Two Arab Israelis were killed by rocket shrapnel following a barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah on the Galilee town of Majd al-Krum.
The victims were named as Hassan Suad, 21, and Arjwan Manaa, 35.
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Israel and Hezbollah Trade Fire Across Lebanon Border, Blinken Calls for Urgent Resolution
A view shows damage at a site hit by an Israeli strike that killed a few journalists and wounded several others as they slept in guesthouses used by media, Lebanon’s health ministry and local media reported, in Hasbaya in southern Lebanon, October 25, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer
An Israeli strike killed three journalists in southern Lebanon on Friday, Lebanese officials said, while Israel said Hezbollah killed two people in a strike in its north as Washington pressed for a ceasefire.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there was an urgent need to get a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, a day after he said Washington did not want to see a protracted campaign in Lebanon by its ally Israel.
Israel launched its major offensive in Lebanon a month ago, saying it was targeting the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah group to secure the return home of tens of thousands of Israelis evacuated from the north due to cross-border rocket attacks.
Beirut authorities say Israel’s Lebanon offensive has killed more than 2,500 people and displaced more than 1.2 million, sparking a humanitarian crisis.
Friday’s strike killed two people in Majd al-Krum in northern Israel, according to Israeli media, and followed a statement from Hezbollah saying that it targeted the northern Israeli town of Karmiel with a large missile salvo.
“The world must stop Iran now – before it’s too late,” Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said on X.
The conflict was sparked by the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel which triggered Israel’s offensive in Gaza, where Palestinian officials said Israeli strikes had killed at least 72 people since Thursday night.
The journalists killed in south Lebanon were Ghassan Najjar and Mohamed Reda of the pro-Iranian news outlet Al-Mayadeen and Wissam Qassem, who worked for Hezbollah’s Al-Manar, the outlets said in separate statements. Several others were wounded.
They had been staying at guesthouses in Hasbaya, a town not previously targeted, when it was hit around 3 a.m. (midnight GMT).
Five journalists have been killed in previous Israeli strikes while reporting on the conflict, including Reuters visual journalist Issam Abdallah on Oct. 13, 2023.
“This is a war crime,” Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary said. At least 18 journalists from six media outlets, including Sky News and Al-Jazeera were using the guesthouses.
“We heard the airplane flying very low – that’s what woke us up – and then we heard the two missiles,” Muhammad Farhat, a reporter with Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed, said.
His footage showed overturned and damaged cars, some marked “Press.” There was no immediate comment from Israel, which in general denies deliberately attacking journalists.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said Israeli forces had fired at their troops in an observation post in southern Dhayra on Tuesday, leading them to leave the post though they remained at the base.
Israel has denied deliberately targeting the force but says Hezbollah has built strongholds in close proximity to UNIFIL sites. Its previous strikes on UNIFIL posts have drawn international condemnation.
BORDER CROSSING STRUCK
Israel has used airstrikes to pound southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs, and has also sent ground forces into southern Lebanon against Hezbollah.
The military said it struck weapon production sites and Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in Beirut as well as Hezbollah targets around the Jousieh border crossing in the northern Bekaa Valley.
It said Hezbollah used the crossing, controlled by the Syrian military, to transfer weapons into Lebanon.
Lebanon’s transport minister Ali Hamieh said the Israeli strike had knocked the Jousieh crossing out of service, leaving the northern route as the only way to Syria.
The UN refugee agency said the strikes were hindering refugees’ attempts to flee. UNHCR spokesperson Rula Amin said some 430,000 people have crossed to Syria since Israel’s campaign started. Lebanon has previously been a major destination for refugees from the Syrian civil war.
“The attacks on the border crossings are a major concern,” Amin said. “They are blocking the path to safety for people fleeing conflict.”
‘REAL URGENCY’
The Israeli campaign spiraled out of a year of cross-border hostilities with Hezbollah, which opened fire on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas, a day after it launched the Oct. 7 attack.
“We have a sense of real urgency in getting to a diplomatic resolution and the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, such that there can be real security along border between Israel and Lebanon,” Blinken said in London.
He said it was important so “people at both sides of the border can have the confidence to… return to their homes”.
Hezbollah has kept fighting despite heavy blows, including the killing of its leader Hassan Nasrallah. Israel said five of its soldiers had been killed in combat in southern Lebanon, after announcing on Thursday the deaths of five others.
The Israeli military said it had uncovered an underground command center in a village close to the border with Israel and a site concealed in wooded terrain where Kornet anti-tank missiles, launchers, hand grenades and rifles were stored.
Washington has expressed hope that the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the Oct. 7 attacks, could provide an impetus for an end to fighting.
Officials said on Thursday that US and Israeli negotiators will gather in Doha in the coming days to try and restart talks toward a deal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who met Blinken in London, said “ethnic cleansing” was taking place in northern Gaza. Israel denies such accusations, saying it is separating civilians from Hamas terrorists and moving them to safer areas.
Safadi said: “We are at the moment now where nothing justifies the continuation of the wars. Guns have to go silent.”
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