Monday, November 20, 2023

From my dear friend Nancy who heard it from Naomi: "Word this morning is that poet Mosab Abu Toha has been kidnapped by Israeli forces"

Mosab Abu Toha - essayist, poet - has been kidnapped by Israeli army in Gaza as he was fleeing with his family.  Diana Buttu  @dianabuttu

 
NOTEBOOKS

"During night airstrikes, all of us turned

into stones"   

poet Mosab Abu Tohu of Gaza, Palestine

from page 86 in his recent riveting book

2022 copyright

Poetry Foundation

Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet, short story writer, and essayist from Gaza. Abu Toha is the author of Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza (2022, City Lights), which won a 2022 Palestine Book Award. Abu Toha is the founder of the Edward Said Library, and from 2019 to 2020, he was a visiting poet and librarian-in-residence at Harvard University.

Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet, short story writer, and essayist from Gaza
 
 
2 Poems by Mosab Abu Toha

&

"Obit," by Mosab Abu Toha | The New Yorker

Nov 6, 2023Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet from Gaza. His début poetry book, "Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear," was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won an American...
 

A Poem by Mosab Abu Toha: 'Younger Than War' - The Atlantic

Nov 9, 2023I saw a helicopter firing a rocket. into a tower as far from me as my frightful cries. when I heard concrete and glass fall from high. Loaves of bread went stale. I was still 7 at the time. I was ...
 
 &

poets.org

Mouth Still Open

 

Someone’s mouth is still open. He hadn’t finished yawning
when shrapnel
pierced
through
his chest,
stung his
heart.
No wind
could
stop the
flying pieces
of shrapnel. Even
the sparrow on the lemon tree nearby wondered how they

           could
                               move

                               with
        
                      no
wings

 

Copyright © 2022 by Mosab Abu Toha. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on April 15, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.

 

Goodreads Author

 His poems have been published in Poetry, The Nation, The New York Review of Books, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, and Poetry Daily, among others
at

3 comments:

  1. Anne Selden AnnabNovember 21, 2023 at 10:48 AM

    Update on Mosab Abu Toha: he has been released by the Israeli army. Israeli soldiers beat him and he getting medical treatment now and with his family.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anne Selden AnnabNovember 24, 2023 at 9:16 AM

    2nd update from Mosab Abu Toha
    @MosabAbuToha
    I’m safe but still have pain in nose and teeth after being beaten by Israeli army.
    I gave them all my family’s passports, including my American son’s but they didn’t return anything. Also my clothes & my children’s were taken and not returned to me. No wallet, money, credit cards

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anne Selden AnnabNovember 26, 2023 at 9:19 AM

    What is Home?
    Mosab Abu Toha

    What is home:
    it is the shade of trees on my way to school
    before they were uprooted.
    It is my grandparents’ black-and-white wedding
    photo before the walls crumbled.
    It is my uncle’s prayer rug, where dozens of ants
    slept on wintry nights, before it was looted and
    put in a museum.
    It is the oven my mother used to bake bread and
    roast chicken before a bomb reduced our house
    to ashes.
    It is the café where I watched football matches
    and played—

    My child stops me: Can a four-letter word hold
    all of these?

    From Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear by Mosab Abu Taha. Copyright © 2022 by Mosab Abu Taha. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC, on behalf of City Lights Publishers. https://poets.org/poem/what-home

    ReplyDelete