We Begin Here: Poems for Palestine and Lebanon

by Kamal Boullata

We Begin Here: Poems for Palestine and Lebanon contains poems written in response to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon together with new ones rising from the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon. Following a great tradition of poetry throughout history, this book shows the vast conscience and lyrical spirit of resistance on the part of poets in support of the dignity, rights, and humanity of the Palestinian and Lebanese people. We Begin Here is an affirmation of the human and poetic spirit, reminding us that poetry and struggle always "begin here," always leading us back to ourselves, to each other, in community, seeking truth and beauty across all borders.

Genres: Poetry

256 pages, Paperback

First published March 30, 2007

About the author

Kamal Boullata was a Palestinian writer, artist and art historian.

He worked primarily with acrylic and silkscreen. His work was abstract in style, focusing on the ideas of division in Palestinian identity and separation from homeland. He expressed these ideas through geometric forms as well as through the integration of Arabic words and calligraphy.

Boullata wrote poetry and exhibit reviews, and studied and wrote about art history, art theory, and Palestinian arts. He was published often by the Journal of Palestine Studies (JPS). He has written introductions and exhibit reviews for other artists such as Sophie Halaby, Steve Sabella, and ‘Asim Abu Shaqra.

One of Boullata’s most highly regarded books is Palestinian Art: From 1850 to the Present. It is broken into four parts, Part 1: From Religious to Secular Painting, Part 2: Memory and Resistance, Part 3: Art from the Ghetto, and Part 4: The Evocation of Place. This work represents three decades of Boullata’s scholarly research on Palestinian art and is celebrated as the most comprehensive study on modern Palestinian art.

Reviews

[baRbRa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a bit uneven. There were poems I loved - but others just didn't have much impact. Plus I think they're missing some poets that would have made the collection even better (Haas Mroue!)

[Meaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, devastating poetry. So important and impactful. It took me a long time to read through the poems because I had to take breaks and think about them for a long time, but it was so worth it.
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My favorites from the collection:
-"How a Poem Begins" by Grace Cavalieri
-"Letters My Prez is Not Sending" by Naomi Shihab Nye
-"Equinox" by Joy Harjo
-"Libra in Times of War" by Saladin Ahmed
-"Suffer the Little Children" by Samuel Hazo
-"What She Said" by Lisa Suhair Majaj
-"History of the Airplane" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
-"For Which It Stands" by Samuel Hazo
-"The Coffin Maker Speaks" by Lisa Suhair Majaj
-"Fuel" by Margaret Gibson
-"War Theater" by Grace Cavalieri
-"Palestine" by Etel Adnan
-"Holy Land" by Seema V. Atalla
-"In Hebron" by Richard Schaaf
-"Enemy of Civilization" by Amiri Baraka
-"Mama Condi" by Andy Young
-"Cold Comfort" by Seema V. Atalla
-"Country Life in Wartime" by Frank Reeve
-"In Mosul" by Richard Schaaf
-"The Wall" by Grace Cavalieri
-"Lucy" by Hayan Charara
-"Connecting Flight" by Yasmin Adib
-"Blues for the Soldiers Who Told You" by Martín Espada
-"And Not Surrender" by Sara Miles
-"Letter to the Editor" by Kathy Engel
-"Letter from Mona Saudi: Beirut Summer 1982" by Gabrielle S. Edgcomb
-"I Hold You Responsible for Everything You Do in My Dreams" by Kathy Engel
-"At Fakhani, the Shoe" by Sam Hamod
-"At the Edge" by Barbara Berman
-"From Bearsville to Palestine" by Sara Miles
-"A Time Comes When Silence Is Betrayal" by Kathy Engel
-"In Sabra" by Sam Hamod
-"My Humanitarian Response to the War in Lebanon" by Sara Miles

[Fatima Hanif · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the poems are so powerful they moved me to tears.
The book is very well compiled and is a great example of resistance against genocide.

[Naori · Rating 5 out of 5]

As our nation hovers at the precipice of change, held in the abeyance of a political evolution, we ask ourselves what personal reincarnations must accompany this moment. Kathy Engel and Kamal Boullata, editors of We Begin Here: Poems for Palestine and Lebanon engage this very notion in their powerful anthology. Spanning over a quarter century of conflict in the Middle East, and forwarding the voices of poets from multiple nations, this collection offers an intricate understanding of what it means to resist, to give birth to change - to create meaning out of astonishing political chaos and violence. In her introduction Engel writes, “We begin here. In the space between words. Our multilingual sounds affirm presence, conscience, memory.” This transformation of silence into sound is what inspires the words of the many poets included in this anthology. These writers are the disciples of language, testifying to the ability of stories to save lives. The editors’ statement, “We are beyond asking. Now we must learn to invent” , speaks to the book’s mission to reveal the agency of language. As this statement suggests (asserts), in order to evoke change, to visualize peace, we have to create, communicate, to imagine. We can no longer passively request, but rather through the language of our art and ideas, we must demand. This collection configures artistic and political speech as the true weapon against terrorism, suggesting the corporeality of language, the embodiment of meaning. The tenor of each selection is raw, blinding, illustrating the ardency of speech. Their images and evocations turn your face towards the heart of violence, war and terror, and force you to make art, to make poetry, to make meaning out of it.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moving collection of poems by a diverse group including Lawrence Ferlinghetti, June Jordan, Naomi Shihab Nye, Ethelbert Miller, Sam Hamill, and lots of people I had not heard of before.

[Diptychal]

One of the best poetry anthologies on the Middle East.