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In a recent conference, a member of the audience said to me: “The death of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish represented such a tragedy for all Palestinians, regardless of their geographic location, political or religious affiliation in a way that reminded me of the death of Yasser Arafat. Why is this?” I hesitated for a moment, for commemorating the life of this man always requires pause. Then I replied: “poets in Palestinian society are revered like prophets. They have the awesome responsibly of inspiring revolutions and articulating them at the same time. They convey tragedies that couldn’t be otherwise be expressed with every day language. They give voice to the voiceless, and speak to the misery of so many who have lost everything. Some of Palestine’s greatest leaders were poets, and greatest poets were leaders. It’s no surprise that Palestinian poet ‘Abd al-Raheem Mahmoud, the writer of the ever-revered “The Martyr” died in battle in 1948 defending his beloved homeland. Darwish has carried the torch of Palestinian verse, victimization and rebellion for many years. His death represents the kind of loss that can only be articulated by someone like Mahmoud Darwish, but he was no longer there to make sense of it.

Thus, it was a delightful surprise to receive and read “Poets for Palestine” a new poetry and art collection edited by Remi Kanazi, himself an erudite poet and writer. It was also heartwarming to find out that the first poem adorning that brilliantly composed book was by Mahmoud Darwish, the hero of Palestinian intellectual resistance, along with Edward Said, and others: ‘Who Am I, Without Exile?”