Poets Against War continues the tradition of socially engaged poetry by creating venues for poetry as a voice against war, tyranny and oppression.
Kohleun Seo Adamson
21 years old
Kohleun studies philosophy in rain-drenched Oregon. Her greatest passions are peace, reconciliation, and gender issues. Kohleun hopes her young niece will live in a world of peace and equality.
For Those Who Talk to Plants
Bethlehem, West Bank, 2008
Mahir does indeed talk to plants: garlic, mint, thyme, his favorite conversation partners. They do not speak of limon ba nana, za’taar, or baba ganoush (all that blending and roasting is better left unsaid). In the mornings he bends under arching vines with a watering can, whispers, “I hope we will all be here tomorrow,” and tips the spout over irises listening from a washed out petrol barrel.
Jasmine and coriander grow out of sawed-off plastic jugs and handleless buckets. Before bed he reads to them, stories, poems, prayers. Tonight he says nothing, simply leans against a trellis of grapes, closes his face like a blossom. Another day within a wall made of concrete, slowly moving in with the dark. Jasmine blinks and nods.
Tomorrow, if he is still here and this garden is still here, Mahir will wake early and scour the kitchen, the barn, the shed for some sort of container—perhaps the square hollow of an olive oil tin will do the trick—anything that holds dirt and roots. He will plant something here, something sweet, and say nothing of destruction or the fear absorbing water and growing heavy in his hands.
