Kétu Oladuwa
. . . the poet is representative. He stands among partial men for the complete man, and apprises us not of his wealth, but of the common wealth. The young man reveres men of genius, because, to speak truly, they are more himself than he is. They receive of the soul as he also receives, but they more. Nature enhances her beauty, to the eye of loving men, from their belief that the poet is beholding her shows at the same time. He is isolated among his contemporaries by truth and by his art, but with this consolation in his pursuits, that they will draw all men sooner or later. For all men live by truth and stand in need of expression. In love, in art, in avarice, in politics, in labor, in games, we study to utter our painful secret. The man is only half himself, the other half is his expression.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Poet
For women poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action.
—Audrey Lorde, Poetry Is Not A Luxury
2024 — It’s past time for Poetz to speak! The genocide in Gaza & concurrent attack on Lebanon civilians is being waged with criminal intent by Israel & the US. This 14th month-long Zionist campaign or the WW2 Nazi extermination of 6 million Jews are not the first genocides. Poetz requires perspective.
The Tainos of Ayiti, circa 1490s ; extermination of North American indigenous populations, from the British colonies to today’s colonial economic empire; the Herero & Nama of German-held Southwest Afrika (today Namibia) circa 1904; & Belgian King Leopold’s genocide of more than 10-million Congolese from the 1885 Berlin Conference through the early 1900s, all stand as testament of elite European character & behavior as regards nonwhite peoples.
Israel is a zionist settler colony & apartheid state. It could not exist without US armaments, dollars, & political cover. Since the Palestinian jailbreak of October 7th, despite the internal displacement of 9 out of 10 Palestinians (1.9 million people), the people of Palestine have not surrendered. They continue to resist, backed materially only by Hezbollah, the Houthis, & other resistance forces in Northeast Afrika. The Palestinian people have not been & will not be defeated, & the Zionist assault on their collective identity has recruited millions to their fight for land & sovereignty.
28 artists had been killed in Israeli airstrikes, by October 2023. Reporting November 21st, 2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists[1] wrote that: Among the more than 44,500 Palestinians killed since October 7th are 137 journalists & media workers. The homes of Poetz, artists, & journalists have been systematicly targeted by Israel, using US arms & intelligence. As of October 1st, this year, the UN estimated that 10,000 bodies are beneath the rubble in Gaza. Add to that number the 67,413 people estimated to have died as a result of starvation, & lack of access to care for chronic diseases; & the UN had no estimate of people who’ve died due to infectious diseases, & lack of maternal & neonatal care.1
As Poetz, we are obligated to communicate the spiritual & material truth of what we see. The Palestinian’s lands were stolen & converted in a Zionist state project justified by the West with a biblical mythology. Palsestinian resistance, resilience, & will to life & sovereignty must be told, retold & upheld. Huemanity—not special or elite interest—must be served. We Poetz stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine against genocide’s enablers & profiteers. Genocide & apartheid are not ever acceptable. Poetry is not a luxury but sacred expression—huemanity’s deepest striving for peace & beauty. Truth is our obligation! Morality, empathy, witness & resistance our pledge.
Our voices raised in resistance to the ongoing genocide in the apartheid state of Israel, we call out the US politicians bought & sold by the Zionist lobby? The ethnic cleansing of Gaza, the West Bank, & East Jerusalem—lands Palestinians have inhabited for more than a thousand years—requires that we speak. Apartheid & genocide could not stand without the full weight & support of the government of the United States & the relative silence of its people. We will not be complicit.
We stand against this government’s waging a proxy war on Iran through Israel’s ethnic cleansing & genocide of the people of Palestine. We are not killers, & this admministration does not represent our interests in Northeast Afrika. The US government is complicit in genocide & today stands before the world’s court of public opinion, & subsequently, we hope, before the World Court!
[1] The Committee to Protect Journalists is an American independent, 501 nonprofit, non-governmental organization based in New York City, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists
