PALESTINE POEM: Al Jannah

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CPTnet
12 May 2010
PALESTINE POEM: Al Jannah                 

 

by Marilyn Paarlberg

 

[Note: Paarlberg was a member of the 6-18 April 2010 CPT delegation to Palestine.]

 

The daffodils stayed up to welcome us home.

So did the flowering vinca,

and the forsythia, as if

they’d been waiting,

heads cocked for the airport cab

that would spit us back onto familiar soil.

We fell into the embrace of green,

of our garden yard, and spring,

and the promise of lilacs

beneath an open window.

 

Sinking grateful into sleep

we dreamed of another paradise

whose soil still clung to our shoes.

Of gentle slopes, of flocks

grazing ancient valleys in the Hebron hills.

And older still, of that Eden home

where nature rose up in welcome,

where all creation sang its Te Deum,

where all manner of beings flourished

side by side in Shalom, Salaam,

before any dark angel

could lift his dreaded,

banishing arm.

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