What do you think?
Rate this book
Palestine Wail
- GenresPoetry
116 pages, Paperback
Published July 22, 2024
2 people are currently reading
52 people want to read
About the author
Yahia Lababidi
24 books104 followersYahia Lababidi is an acclaimed Arab-American writer of Palestinian heritage, author of more than a dozen books of aphorisms, poetry, essays, and conversations. His work unites Eastern mysticism, Western philosophy, and Arab heritage to explore life’s enduring questions: love, faith, suffering, and self-discovery.
His newest books are On the Contrary: Wilde & Nietzsche (Fomite Shorts, 2025), a meditation on two contrarians who turned life into art and thought into moral adventure, and What Remains to Be Said (Wild Goose Publications, 2025), a career-spanning collection of aphorisms written over three decades. Philosophical yet poetic, these reflections offer clarity and consolation in a time of noise, conflict, and distraction.
Lababidi’s Palestine Wail (Daraja Press, 2024) is a love letter to Gaza, praised by Naomi Shihab Nye and translated into seven languages. His poems for Palestine have been read at literary festivals across the world and shared in classrooms and vigils alike.
Earlier works include Quarantine Notes (Fomite Press, 2023), written during the global pandemic; Desert Songs (Rowayat, 2022); Learning to Pray: A Book of Longing (Kelsay Books, 2021); and Revolutions of the Heart (Wipf & Stock, 2020). His acclaimed aphorism collections Signposts to Elsewhere and Where Epics Fail were endorsed by President Obama’s inaugural poet, Richard Blanco, who called Lababidi “the current-day master of the aphorism.”
His writing has appeared on PBS NewsHour, NPR, ABC Radio, On Being with Krista Tippett, Best American Poetry, The Guardian, and World Literature Today. A five-time Pushcart nominee, Lababidi has spoken at Oxford University and served as a juror for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant.
His newest books are On the Contrary: Wilde & Nietzsche (Fomite Shorts, 2025), a meditation on two contrarians who turned life into art and thought into moral adventure, and What Remains to Be Said (Wild Goose Publications, 2025), a career-spanning collection of aphorisms written over three decades. Philosophical yet poetic, these reflections offer clarity and consolation in a time of noise, conflict, and distraction.
Lababidi’s Palestine Wail (Daraja Press, 2024) is a love letter to Gaza, praised by Naomi Shihab Nye and translated into seven languages. His poems for Palestine have been read at literary festivals across the world and shared in classrooms and vigils alike.
Earlier works include Quarantine Notes (Fomite Press, 2023), written during the global pandemic; Desert Songs (Rowayat, 2022); Learning to Pray: A Book of Longing (Kelsay Books, 2021); and Revolutions of the Heart (Wipf & Stock, 2020). His acclaimed aphorism collections Signposts to Elsewhere and Where Epics Fail were endorsed by President Obama’s inaugural poet, Richard Blanco, who called Lababidi “the current-day master of the aphorism.”
His writing has appeared on PBS NewsHour, NPR, ABC Radio, On Being with Krista Tippett, Best American Poetry, The Guardian, and World Literature Today. A five-time Pushcart nominee, Lababidi has spoken at Oxford University and served as a juror for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
August 25, 2024
Palestine Wail, by Yahia Lababidi is exactly what the title says, a wail for Palestine, that is pertinent to the war between Israel and Hamas and the genocide of the Palestine people. The poem, Double Bind," exemplifies a simple view:
Double Bind
To secure the world's sympathy
Palestinians must be saintly—
yet, Israel has universal trust
despite continuing to act monstrously.
Now, tell us the difference
between Palestinians & Hamas?
I sigh and say, again, Palestinians
are an innocent people
who want only to live in peace
Caught between a rock, called Israel,
and a hard place that is Hamas.
The world is burning with wars, and with damaged people. In the introduction we get an overview of how people "oscillate" between becoming hardened or an open wound. Like Elie Wiesel, Lababidi asks us to rise above loyalty to any nation-state, and to care about our fellow humans. He compares the current war with the 9/11 and its retribution where multiples of Iraqi civilian deaths were incomparable against the 3,000 deaths on US soil. Ultimately the pain and suffering on our own soil is our shadow side, hate. We are asked again to move from this warlike affront to life, to a more compassionate, empathetic trust of others' pain. He has turned to art, to poetry, to express the pain of these times when so many are needlessly having their lives and worlds destroyed. And through art and spirit this is a hopeful book that reminds us how to be human. How to be with another and question ourselves, and ask why our internal landscapes cause such external trauma.
We find the opening poem "Hope," set before the section Unbearable Casualties, it opens, "Hope's not quite as it seems, / it's slimmer than you think / and less steady on its feet." We move into this book knowing we have to stand up for what is right. Hence the first poem in the first section, "What to Bring to a War Protest." Later, an "Open Letter to Israel," and poems on student uprisings. In the poem "Columbia University," he writes, "Bless these natural born idealists / (in other words, peace activists) / for their unbridled vision / and unbridled principles // Bless the young for reminding us / there is no looking away / no foreign soil / no other." Bringing us back to the principle concept of the mystics, we are one; to the lesson in the poem "Gaza, A Capital of Hurt," here he reminds us what Gaza means, "a center of weaving / since the 13th century // It’s our turn, after hundreds of years / to dress Gazan wounds & wipe their tears…”
In the "Afterward: Poetry of Resistance and Resilience," he writes about the journalists, artists, intellectuals, writers, and children killed. He reminds us, “Words matter, since narratives shape realities — and, in turn, how history is told and who is deemed worthy of our sympathies. That’s why artists are considered dangerous — for daring to speak truth to power.” In this afterward he names those speaking out. This is a vital book to read.
Double Bind
To secure the world's sympathy
Palestinians must be saintly—
yet, Israel has universal trust
despite continuing to act monstrously.
Now, tell us the difference
between Palestinians & Hamas?
I sigh and say, again, Palestinians
are an innocent people
who want only to live in peace
Caught between a rock, called Israel,
and a hard place that is Hamas.
The world is burning with wars, and with damaged people. In the introduction we get an overview of how people "oscillate" between becoming hardened or an open wound. Like Elie Wiesel, Lababidi asks us to rise above loyalty to any nation-state, and to care about our fellow humans. He compares the current war with the 9/11 and its retribution where multiples of Iraqi civilian deaths were incomparable against the 3,000 deaths on US soil. Ultimately the pain and suffering on our own soil is our shadow side, hate. We are asked again to move from this warlike affront to life, to a more compassionate, empathetic trust of others' pain. He has turned to art, to poetry, to express the pain of these times when so many are needlessly having their lives and worlds destroyed. And through art and spirit this is a hopeful book that reminds us how to be human. How to be with another and question ourselves, and ask why our internal landscapes cause such external trauma.
We find the opening poem "Hope," set before the section Unbearable Casualties, it opens, "Hope's not quite as it seems, / it's slimmer than you think / and less steady on its feet." We move into this book knowing we have to stand up for what is right. Hence the first poem in the first section, "What to Bring to a War Protest." Later, an "Open Letter to Israel," and poems on student uprisings. In the poem "Columbia University," he writes, "Bless these natural born idealists / (in other words, peace activists) / for their unbridled vision / and unbridled principles // Bless the young for reminding us / there is no looking away / no foreign soil / no other." Bringing us back to the principle concept of the mystics, we are one; to the lesson in the poem "Gaza, A Capital of Hurt," here he reminds us what Gaza means, "a center of weaving / since the 13th century // It’s our turn, after hundreds of years / to dress Gazan wounds & wipe their tears…”
In the "Afterward: Poetry of Resistance and Resilience," he writes about the journalists, artists, intellectuals, writers, and children killed. He reminds us, “Words matter, since narratives shape realities — and, in turn, how history is told and who is deemed worthy of our sympathies. That’s why artists are considered dangerous — for daring to speak truth to power.” In this afterward he names those speaking out. This is a vital book to read.
February 11, 2025
The first poem in Yahia’s powerful collection ‘Palestinian Wail’, is called Hope. In this short piece Yahia introduces us to the experience that is the foundation of his collection: Hope is smaller than you think.
This truth touched me right away. Although we might not have lived through a genocide, survived mass murder or other atrocities personally, we each know is some small way of the fragility of hope. Thus, I would say to any reader, this collection is for you.
It moves on from Hope to casualties and there’s no doubt it is a tough read. Silence follows for most of the following pages, as I try to find a small green blade of hope. I find one in Yahia’s suggestion that you need to ‘bring a bird’ to a protest to ‘set others free’.
Few of the poems are all that long. This means you can meditate on each one. I had the pages open, one at a time, for a good long look but as he writes in the poem about Columbia University ‘there’s no looking away’.
You might think that would mean I’d want to rush through, skip over and finish this collection as quickly as possible. Not a bit of it. I felt, for once in the dreadful war, that I was doing something positive. So small, so insignificant, but something: I was witnessing. This was a tiny act of solidarity by one who hardly knows how to do such a thing adequately. Yahia understand this. His poem ‘How to protest’ knowingly states ‘Truth, Beauty, Justice, Peace/are not at all easy to wear’. Equally it’s not easy to know what to say during a genocide. Yahai points to ‘tears of kindness and solidarity’ rather than ‘a loud and wounding Silence’.
As one who has often written about the different kinds of silence, I can only weep in my agreement. For him, it is the music of his homeland that finally causes him to weep. The collection is not long, but clearly illustrates the ‘light and beauty’ he hungers for and that he found in writing it.
It is followed by a Afterword drawing on his own experience and an acknowledgement of the role played by his mentor, Mark Burrows, in arranging the collection. Please read it all if you can.
This truth touched me right away. Although we might not have lived through a genocide, survived mass murder or other atrocities personally, we each know is some small way of the fragility of hope. Thus, I would say to any reader, this collection is for you.
It moves on from Hope to casualties and there’s no doubt it is a tough read. Silence follows for most of the following pages, as I try to find a small green blade of hope. I find one in Yahia’s suggestion that you need to ‘bring a bird’ to a protest to ‘set others free’.
Few of the poems are all that long. This means you can meditate on each one. I had the pages open, one at a time, for a good long look but as he writes in the poem about Columbia University ‘there’s no looking away’.
You might think that would mean I’d want to rush through, skip over and finish this collection as quickly as possible. Not a bit of it. I felt, for once in the dreadful war, that I was doing something positive. So small, so insignificant, but something: I was witnessing. This was a tiny act of solidarity by one who hardly knows how to do such a thing adequately. Yahia understand this. His poem ‘How to protest’ knowingly states ‘Truth, Beauty, Justice, Peace/are not at all easy to wear’. Equally it’s not easy to know what to say during a genocide. Yahai points to ‘tears of kindness and solidarity’ rather than ‘a loud and wounding Silence’.
As one who has often written about the different kinds of silence, I can only weep in my agreement. For him, it is the music of his homeland that finally causes him to weep. The collection is not long, but clearly illustrates the ‘light and beauty’ he hungers for and that he found in writing it.
It is followed by a Afterword drawing on his own experience and an acknowledgement of the role played by his mentor, Mark Burrows, in arranging the collection. Please read it all if you can.
December 10, 2024
Yahia Lababidi is an Egyptian-born poet who regularly posts on social media, where he first came to my attention in 2017. Since then I have enjoyed reading his socially conscious posts, and especially his poetry, of which this is his latest collection. The title makes one think of "Jerusalem Wall" and relates to the current profoundly sad conflict between Israel and Gaza/Palestine.
When thinking about war poetry, the great poets like Yeats and Sassoon spring to mind, and I would say that Lababidi's poetry is easily as good and as thought provoking. The book is divided into three sections: I: Unbearable Casualties, II: Lingering at the Threshold, III: On a Far Shore. As you might imagine from these titles, he takes us on a journey through the horrors of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to a glimpse of the possible solutions, and finally a hopeful potential future - in The Lightkeepers he writes "Hope is a lighthouse / (or, at least, a lamppost) /someone must keep vigil / to illumine this possibility".
In his preface Lababidi writes "In the poems that follow, I wonder how it is we readily accept that we are governed by physical laws like gravity yet believe that we can turn our backs on age-old spiritual laws like Love, Compassion, Forgiveness, Mercy, Trust, Hope without paying a high and deadly price." and this is a theme that runs through the book. His poems are at once a warning to humankind about the cost of our selfish excesses, but also a beacon of hope promoting those values of Love, Compassion, Forgiveness, Mercy, Trust, Hope.
This is a must read book that I highly recommend.
When thinking about war poetry, the great poets like Yeats and Sassoon spring to mind, and I would say that Lababidi's poetry is easily as good and as thought provoking. The book is divided into three sections: I: Unbearable Casualties, II: Lingering at the Threshold, III: On a Far Shore. As you might imagine from these titles, he takes us on a journey through the horrors of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to a glimpse of the possible solutions, and finally a hopeful potential future - in The Lightkeepers he writes "Hope is a lighthouse / (or, at least, a lamppost) /someone must keep vigil / to illumine this possibility".
In his preface Lababidi writes "In the poems that follow, I wonder how it is we readily accept that we are governed by physical laws like gravity yet believe that we can turn our backs on age-old spiritual laws like Love, Compassion, Forgiveness, Mercy, Trust, Hope without paying a high and deadly price." and this is a theme that runs through the book. His poems are at once a warning to humankind about the cost of our selfish excesses, but also a beacon of hope promoting those values of Love, Compassion, Forgiveness, Mercy, Trust, Hope.
This is a must read book that I highly recommend.
December 6, 2024
A wonderful, thoughtful and thought provoking compendium of poems that invite the mind to wander into the realm of wonderment about what injustices have been taking place in the besieged and now completely destroyed Gaza!
The Introduction and the Afterword of this book offers the reader a great foundation for understanding what triggered the author’s poems (for us to ponder and enjoy).
Loved reading the book and hope that you will too!
As a companion to the book I strongly encourage you to watch the following interview in which Yahia Lababidi articulates his journey from conception to completion of his book. His reading out of some of the poems adds an important dimension to the book.
https://www.youtube.com/live/5vre9Z3o...
The Introduction and the Afterword of this book offers the reader a great foundation for understanding what triggered the author’s poems (for us to ponder and enjoy).
Loved reading the book and hope that you will too!
As a companion to the book I strongly encourage you to watch the following interview in which Yahia Lababidi articulates his journey from conception to completion of his book. His reading out of some of the poems adds an important dimension to the book.
https://www.youtube.com/live/5vre9Z3o...
December 2, 2024
Rating: 3.5
The introduction and afterword were both very strong, while I felt the poems themselves were a bit hit and miss for me.
Still, the message of this book is clear and impactful, and it's a fairly quick read.
The introduction and afterword were both very strong, while I felt the poems themselves were a bit hit and miss for me.
Still, the message of this book is clear and impactful, and it's a fairly quick read.
November 15, 2024
Yahia Lababidi first came to my attention as an eloquent essayist (Open Letter to Electronic Intifada was maybe my introduction) and with a compassionate grasp of our various poetry traditions (see his introductory essay) this is a poetry of deep purpose, on the scent of truth and experience. The poems in his book are stark and direct free speech regarding the evolving situations in Palestine, and, in my reading, form a fascinating contrast with Mahmoud Darwish whose poems have been constant companions all the days of the genocide, generally not as symbolist as Darwish and subsequently more immediately relatable as eye and ear witnessess on par with the gutsy in the trenches driectness of Bisan Owda's instagram reportage. It's a hard read, I must say, since the pain the poems bear witness to is heart-breaking, the statistics always alarming, the silence of the world at large unconscionable. There is an enduring vision in some poems also I feel of lacrimae rerum "The watermelons are rotten/ — cut open and bone dry —/ from bleeding in the streets" and the sense of nature being ripped apart "The air is a storm of pitiless steel birds the terrible beauty of fighter planes mimicking natural flight formations with unholy, and thunderous cries" that reminds us that human beings are not alone in suffering this genocide cum ecocide. Although the pain and absurdity of the genocide that the poems address is unfathomable, literally unspeakable, there is a fine intelligence running throughout, a reflective and philosophical mood and evidence of resilience of this Palestinians and the sumud of the whole people. Since each real poem in the cosmos is it's own locus, each poem here equally goes, shatteringly, into details of loss, displacement, starvation, collective memories, each poem could breed volumes of commentary but I'm going to simply ask you to read these poems for yourself, hear their plea and yearning for transformation and keep the faith, stay sane, genuine, protest when you can.
P.S. in the section entitled Lingering at the Threshold we see the poet grappling ably IMO with spiritual problems of the times (of all times?) that take us out of the perimeter of the occupation of Palestine, notably Minister of Loneliness with a touch of the existential dark humor & irony
"Successful candidates must be virtuosos of suffering
sensitive, of course, yet impervious to lingering sadness
tirelessly capable of encouraging others despite,
at times, feeling defeated or assaulted by pointlessness
If appointed, what would you do differently
from the previous three Ministers of Loneliness
who struggled with this title? How will you overcome
that loneliness of perpetual sociability?
Are you willing and able to work alongside
those unacknowledged ministers of loneliness
mystics, poets and artists of all stripes
who serve this role, quietly, without credit?"
"Lastly, candidates must agree to submit
to a lie detector test, to prove that
their online friendships are satisfying,
and posts of smiling selfies or social media persona
are not, in fact, an elaborate fabrication."
P.S. in the section entitled Lingering at the Threshold we see the poet grappling ably IMO with spiritual problems of the times (of all times?) that take us out of the perimeter of the occupation of Palestine, notably Minister of Loneliness with a touch of the existential dark humor & irony
"Successful candidates must be virtuosos of suffering
sensitive, of course, yet impervious to lingering sadness
tirelessly capable of encouraging others despite,
at times, feeling defeated or assaulted by pointlessness
If appointed, what would you do differently
from the previous three Ministers of Loneliness
who struggled with this title? How will you overcome
that loneliness of perpetual sociability?
Are you willing and able to work alongside
those unacknowledged ministers of loneliness
mystics, poets and artists of all stripes
who serve this role, quietly, without credit?"
"Lastly, candidates must agree to submit
to a lie detector test, to prove that
their online friendships are satisfying,
and posts of smiling selfies or social media persona
are not, in fact, an elaborate fabrication."
November 24, 2024
Favorite Quote = “The homeland does not leave the body until the last moment, the moment of death. The fish, even in the fisherman’s net, still carries the smell of the sea.” - Mourid Barghouti
October 19, 2024
In her poem, “Requiem,” the Russian poet, Anna Akhmatova describes standing in line during the Great Terror of Stalin to get news of whether her son was alive. She was recognized by another woman and asked “can you describe this?” Her answer of “yes, I can” is akin to Yahia Labibidi’s ability to give voice to horrors of our own age that for many of us are unspeakable. His poetry speaks with brutal beauty. Yet we are reminded to continue to love, to seek the praiseworthy, and to root out hatred, lest it occupy us too.
August 7, 2024
Lababidi's citational prose offers a perspective on reality that contends with and transcends the present traumatic moment in the middle east. His resilience and metaphor dissolves the Otherness. There is hope, prayer, anger, and pain. There are surprising checkout aisles and literary references. I found this work tremendously moving.
August 20, 2024
Lababidi’s poetry felt like a balm for having to live amidst such widespread hypocrisy around the Gaza genocide. Through reading, I felt understood and motivated to keep doing what I can to raise awareness. My thanks to the author for providing me with an advanced reader copy!
December 9, 2024
Echoing the words of Mahmoud Darwish, “Poetry is an act of resistance,” this collection is strong, clear, heartfelt, of grief and beauty. The poet seems to find strength and meaning (and perhaps hope) in “radical relief”, “radical gratitude”, “radical love”… phrases and feelings that occur across the poems in this collection. Some of my favourites include ‘The Lightkeepers’, ‘Fine, Tuning,’ ‘Prayer without hands’, ‘Lamentations’, and ‘Say Something’. The last one is particularly powerful.
Excerpts from different poems:
“…those who build walls
and condone them
do not understand
the limitless heart.”
“…angels wrestle with demons
in an eternal dance
for our betterment.”
“…instead of poetry as piety
poets compete for intimacy
with some abyss…’
“…we do not float
but are connected
to the sea floor
like islands…”
Excerpts from different poems:
“…those who build walls
and condone them
do not understand
the limitless heart.”
“…angels wrestle with demons
in an eternal dance
for our betterment.”
“…instead of poetry as piety
poets compete for intimacy
with some abyss…’
“…we do not float
but are connected
to the sea floor
like islands…”
February 24, 2025
عن العنوان...عن هذا العويل الذي لا ينتهي، شرعت في الكتابة:
العويل..بهذه اللفظة اخترتُ تسمية القصائد أو البكائيات التي ينظمها الشعراء أثناء الإبادة الجماعية أو بعدها مباشرة..إنه عويل..فهل يغني هذا العويل شيئا؟ ربما، لكن كيف؟
و أسعدني أن اقرأ هذا الأسبوع كتاب الأديب يحيى اللبابيدي المعنون
Palestine Wail
و كنت بدأت النشر في هذا السياق عن الفن و الحروب منذ أعوام، ثم توجهت مؤخرا للحديث عن الفن أثناء الإبادة الجماعية.
بَكَت عَيني وَحُقَّ لَها بُكاها
وَما يُغني البُكاءُ وَلا العَويلُ
- عبد الله بن رواحة
بَكَت عَيني وَحُقَّ لَها العَويلُ
وَهاضَ جَناحِيَ الحَدَثُ الجَليلُ
-الخنساء ( تماضر بنت عمرو السلمية)
سمعت عَويلَ النائِحاتِ عَشِيَّةً
في الحَيِّ يَبتَعيثُ الأَسى وَيُثيرُ
-إيليا أبو ماضي
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
إن الشعر و التفريج عما تشعر به الأنفس هو صنف من علاج الأنفس المعطوبة لتخرج شيئا من كبتها و أساها..لكنه أحيانا صرف من الأدب..و أحيانا وثيقة للتاريخ أو دليل من أدلة الإدانة. فمثلما عرفنا ما يحدث في العصر الحديث مما سجله بعض الناجين أو مما خلفه بعض الضحايا من إبادات القرن العشرين، فعبر بعضهم بالرسم أو التدوين اليومي للمذكرات أو حتى عبر بعض الصور و الفيديوهات إن تمكنوا. لكن في غزة 2023-2025، لم نكن بحاجة إلى شيء من هذه الشهادات، فقد كانت الإبادة على البث المباشر طوال 470 يوما أو يزيد. فما حاجتنا إلى قراءة هذا العويل مرة أخرى؟ إنه التوثيق. لا توثيق ما حدث، بل توثيق ما فعلت بنا تلك الإبادة. فهذا ما لم يسجله أحد إلا عبر البوح بما جاش في صدورنا –نحن المتفرجين العاجزين-عبر الكتابة أو الرسم أو القول أو أي تعبير فني نحسن تقديمه لنقول كيف تلقينا هذه الإبادة كمتفرجين. و بلغة أخرى كيف كان العويل الفردي. كيف كان عويل ملايين البشر...فنحن أيضا ضحايا بل نحن ضحايا مرتين. إذ إننا سجناء العجز و الأسى. نحاول ألا نكون صامتين و متواطئين فلا نحسن إلا العويل.
كان هذا تعليق على العنوان..و انتظر أن انتهي من قراءة الكتاب كاملا؛ لأحدثكم عن هذا العمل الأدبي الجديد.
د. إيمان الطحاوي
مصر
24 فبراير 2025
By Sonnet - February 24, 2025
November 17, 2024
Palestine Wail, Poems by Yahia Lababidi is a soothing collection of prayers and observations taking the form of two texts and three chapters of poems. They spoke to me in the form of orisons as I read the whole book in one sitting on the train from Margate to London while at times quietly forming the words in silence. The diction and structure used around genocide, ethnic cleansing and Palestinian steadfastness going back further in time than the current and ongoing forms of these same words, are all present within the confines and borders of linguistic imperialism — ‘The watermelons are rotten — cut open and bone dry — from bleeding in the streets.
Watered tears, I shudder to imagine the future of these sad seeds, what terrible fruit will grow…’
These painful experiences, memories and hopes hint at profound spiritual meaning and the beauty of belief in a higher energy, a ‘G_d’ as this is referred to throughout the book. Here are just two lines that I now hold in my heart. Thank you Yahia — ‘we can’t bury pain and not expect it to grow roots ’ and ‘Mother tongue of the soul, a sigh needs no translation, universal breath.’
Watered tears, I shudder to imagine the future of these sad seeds, what terrible fruit will grow…’
These painful experiences, memories and hopes hint at profound spiritual meaning and the beauty of belief in a higher energy, a ‘G_d’ as this is referred to throughout the book. Here are just two lines that I now hold in my heart. Thank you Yahia — ‘we can’t bury pain and not expect it to grow roots ’ and ‘Mother tongue of the soul, a sigh needs no translation, universal breath.’
December 25, 2024
This was heartbreaking and very good
August 24, 2024
Mary Trainor-Brigham
If you are finding it exhaustingly grueling to awaken everyday to new & relentless atrocities in Gaza, there is sympathetic sustenance to be found in this thoughtful & impassioned book of poetry by Yahia Lababidi: PALESTINE WAIL.
The well-conjured Title alone evokes multiple ponderings:
Think of the Wailing Wall. Think of how it is largely associated with Israeli Jews despite it also being a site of great Spiritual significance for Muslims. And Christians. (Another hijacking whereby "The Chosen" eclipse others?). Now think of the Wall of Apartheid in Palestine: a site of many a Soul's wailing. If consideration of his excellent choice of just these two words will ignite such contemplation, imagine what the book-length banquet of poetry & aphorisms will provide!
My temptation is to share example after example of excerpts displaying what most moved me of Yahia Lababidi's writing in this collection. But that would be like reviewing a film with a litany of spoilers. So I shall minimize that and instead point to one of his most notable talents, because I believe this will be the best way to help you overcome any possible hurdle of reluctance re reading about such an anguishing topic.
He has this unique ability to make a book focusing on Genocide almost bearable: and that is due to his capacity to speak from multi-faceted, prismatic perspectives:
Yes, he will bring you right into the harrowingly subjective state of, e.g. innocent Gazan children "cowering in stupefied awe" whilst on a beach that is being bombed.
But just when you feel nearly suffocated by such grief, an expanded perspective will be afforded by his reflections of protests on Columbia's campus a world away, yet intimately interwoven, like DNA: Peace Activists of "unbridled vision" & "unbribable principle."
This interior knell vs exterior objectivity is summed up in his comparison of this global conflict being echoed in personal relationships, deeming it "a drawn-out family feud" happening in Palestine, yes, but also truncating encounters with intimates "too polite to discuss murder over dinner."
He also exhibits the Alchemist's skill to turn the abysmal into gold, as when he takes the fact that refugees are reduced to eating animal feed and persistently gazes until he sees positive totemic kindredness: Gazans partaking in the endurance of donkeys, the fertility & rebirth of rabbits, the freedom & peace of pigeons.
He also has that wonderful poet's skill of sometimes ending a poem with a stunning drumroll, a bracing finale that makes you immediately re-read it in its entirety before marking the page, drifting the book in your lap, closing your eyes and absorbing that with which you have just been gifted.
It's not a perfect compilation: there are contradictions, an uncomfortably arch assessment or two, and a couple too many statements in high praise of poets & poetry that sound a tad self~congratulatory, when the reader would have been more gracefully left to come to such conclusions themselves.
But these are minor flaws compared with the treasure trove that is PALESTINE WAIL.
It challenges every bit as it comforts, teaching the reader deeper listening as Yahia Lababidi "forges our own language" to "speak in tongues."
For example, he doesn't simply polarize the political players, noting instead that
we are "caught between a rock called Israel
and a hard place that is Hamas."
Again and again, he invites us into the Souls of those enduring this catastrophe, as with Prayer Beads:
The mystery of the world
held in your hands
Oscillating between Here
And the Hereafter.
With rhythmic movement,
An undulating thumb
And steadfast forefinger
...at once grounded and at sea
nameless as the summoned One."
His poem "Secrets" is too wondrous & complex to address in its entirety here. But, as a teaser, I believe it may be my favorite. I hope you shall explore it.
Yes, it is deeply demanding to dive into a book in the time of Genocide. But it serves up meaningfulness if you dare to sacrifice your comfort. As is said in "Ramadan",
"It is not merely food
One sacrifices while fasting,
But thoughtlessness."
Since Yahia Lababidi is generous in including quotes from others, I feel comfortable on ending this endorsement with an excerpt from the poem "Guide" by Brazilian Adelio Prado, who feels a kindred scribe:
Poetry will save me.
I won't tell this to the four winds,
because I'm frightened of experts, excommunication,
afraid of shocking the fainthearted. But not of God.
What is poetry, if not His face touched
by the brutality of things?
If you are finding it exhaustingly grueling to awaken everyday to new & relentless atrocities in Gaza, there is sympathetic sustenance to be found in this thoughtful & impassioned book of poetry by Yahia Lababidi: PALESTINE WAIL.
The well-conjured Title alone evokes multiple ponderings:
Think of the Wailing Wall. Think of how it is largely associated with Israeli Jews despite it also being a site of great Spiritual significance for Muslims. And Christians. (Another hijacking whereby "The Chosen" eclipse others?). Now think of the Wall of Apartheid in Palestine: a site of many a Soul's wailing. If consideration of his excellent choice of just these two words will ignite such contemplation, imagine what the book-length banquet of poetry & aphorisms will provide!
My temptation is to share example after example of excerpts displaying what most moved me of Yahia Lababidi's writing in this collection. But that would be like reviewing a film with a litany of spoilers. So I shall minimize that and instead point to one of his most notable talents, because I believe this will be the best way to help you overcome any possible hurdle of reluctance re reading about such an anguishing topic.
He has this unique ability to make a book focusing on Genocide almost bearable: and that is due to his capacity to speak from multi-faceted, prismatic perspectives:
Yes, he will bring you right into the harrowingly subjective state of, e.g. innocent Gazan children "cowering in stupefied awe" whilst on a beach that is being bombed.
But just when you feel nearly suffocated by such grief, an expanded perspective will be afforded by his reflections of protests on Columbia's campus a world away, yet intimately interwoven, like DNA: Peace Activists of "unbridled vision" & "unbribable principle."
This interior knell vs exterior objectivity is summed up in his comparison of this global conflict being echoed in personal relationships, deeming it "a drawn-out family feud" happening in Palestine, yes, but also truncating encounters with intimates "too polite to discuss murder over dinner."
He also exhibits the Alchemist's skill to turn the abysmal into gold, as when he takes the fact that refugees are reduced to eating animal feed and persistently gazes until he sees positive totemic kindredness: Gazans partaking in the endurance of donkeys, the fertility & rebirth of rabbits, the freedom & peace of pigeons.
He also has that wonderful poet's skill of sometimes ending a poem with a stunning drumroll, a bracing finale that makes you immediately re-read it in its entirety before marking the page, drifting the book in your lap, closing your eyes and absorbing that with which you have just been gifted.
It's not a perfect compilation: there are contradictions, an uncomfortably arch assessment or two, and a couple too many statements in high praise of poets & poetry that sound a tad self~congratulatory, when the reader would have been more gracefully left to come to such conclusions themselves.
But these are minor flaws compared with the treasure trove that is PALESTINE WAIL.
It challenges every bit as it comforts, teaching the reader deeper listening as Yahia Lababidi "forges our own language" to "speak in tongues."
For example, he doesn't simply polarize the political players, noting instead that
we are "caught between a rock called Israel
and a hard place that is Hamas."
Again and again, he invites us into the Souls of those enduring this catastrophe, as with Prayer Beads:
The mystery of the world
held in your hands
Oscillating between Here
And the Hereafter.
With rhythmic movement,
An undulating thumb
And steadfast forefinger
...at once grounded and at sea
nameless as the summoned One."
His poem "Secrets" is too wondrous & complex to address in its entirety here. But, as a teaser, I believe it may be my favorite. I hope you shall explore it.
Yes, it is deeply demanding to dive into a book in the time of Genocide. But it serves up meaningfulness if you dare to sacrifice your comfort. As is said in "Ramadan",
"It is not merely food
One sacrifices while fasting,
But thoughtlessness."
Since Yahia Lababidi is generous in including quotes from others, I feel comfortable on ending this endorsement with an excerpt from the poem "Guide" by Brazilian Adelio Prado, who feels a kindred scribe:
Poetry will save me.
I won't tell this to the four winds,
because I'm frightened of experts, excommunication,
afraid of shocking the fainthearted. But not of God.
What is poetry, if not His face touched
by the brutality of things?
December 23, 2024
In “Afterword: Poetry of Resistance and Resilience,” Yahia Lababidi states what the rest of his book of poems, Palestine Wail, makes indelibly clear: “The systematic, cold-blooded murder of thousands of innocent children, in the name of so-called ‘self-defense,’ is an unjustifiable moral obscenity.” He goes on to ask, “Who will honor these blameless anonymous martyrs?” The answer is Lababidi himself. It can only be hoped that readers of this vital collection of poems of witness will also do so.
Palestine Wail may seem like something of a departure to those who know Lababidi either through his world-renowned aphorisms or through his more recent mystical poems. However, these astonishing new poems—as profoundly affecting as they are morally astringent—emerge from the same poetic sensibility. These poems, while embodying and giving voice to almost unimaginable pain, show in every stanza and line the value and beauty of both precision and concision. A few examples will stand for many:
O, Gaza, O Palestine…
you had to be exterminated
to be seen & remembered.
“You Win by Losing”
Proceed with caution, pilgrim,
you have been, gravely warned:
Here, moral harm is immortal.
“Confessions”
Did we ever imagine the day when
we would have to be taught, as adults,
how to wash our hands…of our sins?
“Re: Birth”
To begin a conversation
about Palestine & Israel
first, you must say:
I am your brother
& you are my sister
“Middle East Advice”
Though composed of two short prose pieces and numerous individual poems, Palestine Wail reads and feels like a single long poem, an epic. Its subjects are genocide, dispossession, the nature of sacrifice and martyrdom, the necessary “transformation” that will end the destruction of the homes and lives (in which human beings are “collectively punished”), and the role of the poet.
Lababidi offers some of his most trenchant insights about transformation. It comes from a sobering contemplation of horrors, the consulting of moral and spiritual principles, the envisioning of a cessation of destruction and the requirements of peace, and the decision to morally engage. Lababidi’s moral vision is profoundly economical: “Renounce all violence, / of heart, word and deed— / only the blameless shall lead” (“Purity”). He adds, more specifically: “To regain our innocence, we must surrender / our cherished degree in demonology” (“For Israel, Palestine & the Human Family”). Nothing is more urgently needed than this work of transformation, for “only transformation will set us free” (“Secrets”).
The role of poets is to become “intimate / with isolation, desolation, desperation /able to minister to moral injury /or spiritual woundedness,” to become “virtuosos of suffering / sensitive, of course, yet impervious to lingering sadness” (“Minister of Loneliness”). The poet is “a human sacrifice,” “an undoer of knots,,” “your unknown friend,” and “a trusted healer ” (“Blasphemous Praise”). “The true political artist” is an “unbribable witness to the depths to which humankind has fallen” (Afterword), the one who can give voice to truths from which others would flinch or turn away. Lababidi makes a request of the poet: “Write me a book / of lamentations… true sorrow is sacred and your songs are psalms” (“Lamentations”).
Ultimately, the poet is the one who assists in transformation by offering hope:
Hope is a lighthouse…
In the dark, a poet will climb
narrow, unsteady stairs
to gaze past crashing waves
and sing to us new horizons…
there is no time for despair
when tending to the Light.
“The Lightkeepers”
Lababidi is such lighthouse keeper, and Palestine Wail is the great illuminating beam of such a lighthouse. Read it, and you will confront the most challenging of realities, but you will emerge
filled with important new perspectives, and, yes, with hope.
Palestine Wail may seem like something of a departure to those who know Lababidi either through his world-renowned aphorisms or through his more recent mystical poems. However, these astonishing new poems—as profoundly affecting as they are morally astringent—emerge from the same poetic sensibility. These poems, while embodying and giving voice to almost unimaginable pain, show in every stanza and line the value and beauty of both precision and concision. A few examples will stand for many:
O, Gaza, O Palestine…
you had to be exterminated
to be seen & remembered.
“You Win by Losing”
Proceed with caution, pilgrim,
you have been, gravely warned:
Here, moral harm is immortal.
“Confessions”
Did we ever imagine the day when
we would have to be taught, as adults,
how to wash our hands…of our sins?
“Re: Birth”
To begin a conversation
about Palestine & Israel
first, you must say:
I am your brother
& you are my sister
“Middle East Advice”
Though composed of two short prose pieces and numerous individual poems, Palestine Wail reads and feels like a single long poem, an epic. Its subjects are genocide, dispossession, the nature of sacrifice and martyrdom, the necessary “transformation” that will end the destruction of the homes and lives (in which human beings are “collectively punished”), and the role of the poet.
Lababidi offers some of his most trenchant insights about transformation. It comes from a sobering contemplation of horrors, the consulting of moral and spiritual principles, the envisioning of a cessation of destruction and the requirements of peace, and the decision to morally engage. Lababidi’s moral vision is profoundly economical: “Renounce all violence, / of heart, word and deed— / only the blameless shall lead” (“Purity”). He adds, more specifically: “To regain our innocence, we must surrender / our cherished degree in demonology” (“For Israel, Palestine & the Human Family”). Nothing is more urgently needed than this work of transformation, for “only transformation will set us free” (“Secrets”).
The role of poets is to become “intimate / with isolation, desolation, desperation /able to minister to moral injury /or spiritual woundedness,” to become “virtuosos of suffering / sensitive, of course, yet impervious to lingering sadness” (“Minister of Loneliness”). The poet is “a human sacrifice,” “an undoer of knots,,” “your unknown friend,” and “a trusted healer ” (“Blasphemous Praise”). “The true political artist” is an “unbribable witness to the depths to which humankind has fallen” (Afterword), the one who can give voice to truths from which others would flinch or turn away. Lababidi makes a request of the poet: “Write me a book / of lamentations… true sorrow is sacred and your songs are psalms” (“Lamentations”).
Ultimately, the poet is the one who assists in transformation by offering hope:
Hope is a lighthouse…
In the dark, a poet will climb
narrow, unsteady stairs
to gaze past crashing waves
and sing to us new horizons…
there is no time for despair
when tending to the Light.
“The Lightkeepers”
Lababidi is such lighthouse keeper, and Palestine Wail is the great illuminating beam of such a lighthouse. Read it, and you will confront the most challenging of realities, but you will emerge
filled with important new perspectives, and, yes, with hope.
September 18, 2024
Yahia Lababidi’s Palestine Wail encompasses several themes touching upon spirituality, empathy, and honesty in a time of genocide. At the heart of his poems, however, Lababidi asks us to have a word. “Words matter,” he reminds us, “since narratives shape realities.” So, listen. Throughout Palestine Wail, Lababidi wrestles with the use, abuse, and seeming uselessness of words—as any honest poet must. We abuse words to mask our realities, calling our deadly fighter jets “’blue angels’ / O, how they blaspheme. . ..” We abuse words by indulging in that deadly distinction between “us” and “Others,” between our own soil and “foreign soil,” thus justifying, or at best silently lamenting, our far-away atrocities. Lababidi prefers the plain language of truth-telling: “America is a psychopath, a gaslighting, abusive partner that insists on being loved, no, worshiped as saint and savior.” A deeply painful irony appears throughout Lababidi’s book. He calls us out from our silence and demands that we maintain our daily struggle “to seek clarity in this smoke-filled world.” Yet he reminds us, “You will find that during a genocide most words lose their meaning,” as “the mouth was shaped to gasp.” He implores fellow artists, poets, preachers, and teachers, “Write me a book of lamentations,” and asks, “What else is there to say?” Yet, he pleads, “Please, say something.”
November 16, 2024
Lababidi's Palestine Wail is a fairly blunt collection of poetry about the current atrocities happening in Gaza by Israel. He doesn't fluff his language and instead many of his poems sound much like someone sitting across from you telling you plainly how things are and pleading for you to take notice and care.
The into and afterward give context and history to the ongoing genocide. The poems themselves, all free form with no real use of poetry techniques I'm aware of, are split into three sections. 1. Unbearable Casualties which is the most direct of the poems. This is the section I feel gives the most weight to the Wail in the title. 2. Lingering at the Threshold and 3. On a Far Shore both feel pretty similar. Based on the titles, I'm assuming the place where they were written is the biggest difference. The 2nd and 3rd sections have a few poems that are more meditative or metaphysical, but are still pretty simple and straight forward.
All together the collection is a fair read about a truly devastating subject asking the reader to pay attention and listen while the author tries to inform you of how horrific the truth is.
The into and afterward give context and history to the ongoing genocide. The poems themselves, all free form with no real use of poetry techniques I'm aware of, are split into three sections. 1. Unbearable Casualties which is the most direct of the poems. This is the section I feel gives the most weight to the Wail in the title. 2. Lingering at the Threshold and 3. On a Far Shore both feel pretty similar. Based on the titles, I'm assuming the place where they were written is the biggest difference. The 2nd and 3rd sections have a few poems that are more meditative or metaphysical, but are still pretty simple and straight forward.
All together the collection is a fair read about a truly devastating subject asking the reader to pay attention and listen while the author tries to inform you of how horrific the truth is.
August 1, 2025
Lababidi offers us a poetics of atrocities, of genocide, and the attempted erasure of the people of Palestine. His directness is a notable part of his poetry, uncensored and pure, as it shows violence as it is, not abstract, but a destroyer of human lives and institutions. We have to name the source of the pain to do something about it. In Lababidis' directive voice:
"If you’re uncomfortable saying Genocide,
say mass murder,
say boneyard,
say unmarked graves..."
These poems challenge us to think (and feel) about Palestinian lives and liberation, and the need for full Palestinian expression:
"The Work, whether employed or not
has been trying to remain
creatively, spiritually alive"
These poems show the difficulties of this Work in a time of terror.
***
"Write me a book
of lamentations
passionate and profound
pure expressions"
Lababidi has done this exactly in Palestine Wail. It's a book of horror, loss, and humanity. Definitely read him.
"If you’re uncomfortable saying Genocide,
say mass murder,
say boneyard,
say unmarked graves..."
These poems challenge us to think (and feel) about Palestinian lives and liberation, and the need for full Palestinian expression:
"The Work, whether employed or not
has been trying to remain
creatively, spiritually alive"
These poems show the difficulties of this Work in a time of terror.
***
"Write me a book
of lamentations
passionate and profound
pure expressions"
Lababidi has done this exactly in Palestine Wail. It's a book of horror, loss, and humanity. Definitely read him.
September 3, 2024
I have not read many books of poetry that exist in the very moment of the subject they are writing about and the emotion they are written from. Palestine Wail is one of those. It echoes with the nightly news (those outlets with enough of a moral conscience to provide honest coverage of the war on Gaza) and resonates with poetry I remember from the period of the Vietnam War and the wars in Central America, especially El Salvador. One of the poems that stays with me is "Why Care?" It is also a question Yahia Lababidi addresses fully in this book.
August 14, 2024
This book is a wonderful compilation of Yahia’s thought provoking poems. The book is organized in three parts with a thoughtful introduction and afterward.
It is a profound exploration of the Palestinian experience during this tragic time in Gaza. His words and poetry will resonate with readers across cultures. As I read the poems, I couldn’t help feeling the anguish, fear, sadness, but also hope and resilience of the people affected. I highly recommend this beautifully written book.
It is a profound exploration of the Palestinian experience during this tragic time in Gaza. His words and poetry will resonate with readers across cultures. As I read the poems, I couldn’t help feeling the anguish, fear, sadness, but also hope and resilience of the people affected. I highly recommend this beautifully written book.
February 17, 2025
If you draw a Venn diagram with three circles: ‘Brave’, ‘Naïve’ & ‘Compassionate’, you’ll find this book right in the center.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews