A Date With a Literary Scholar, Refaat Alareer

Freshly Baked Souls by Refaat Alareer

As fire balls and sparks descend,
And the little ones rejoice,
Look up, and cheer, unable to comprehend,
Sooner than they expect
They will be blown
(It’s none of their wishes
If only they had known!)
And more freshly grilled balls of flesh ascend.
And fall on full dishes
And fill the boxes.
And the hollow minds.
The full bellies.
They look down. Rejoice. Cheer.
“Freshly baked!”
“Freshly baked!”
“Who wants freshly baked flesh for breakfast?”
“Throw me a piece. “
“Throw me  four.
I have just eaten but crave for more.”

***

The hearts are not hearts.
The eyes can’t see
There are no eyes there
The bellies craving for more
A house destroyed except for the door
The family, all of them, gone
Save a photo album
That has to be buried with them
No one was left to cherish the memories
No one.
Except freshly baked souls in bellies.
Except for a poem .

Mr. Refaat Aleer, a Palestinian poet (although he doesn't think of himself as a poet but a mere blogger) came to visit us in class on the 21st of October 2013. It was a great experience for us to have met such a bold and wise soul. It took him around 1-2 months of effort to reach Malaysia. He taught us a little bit about Palestine, its history and the current condition there.

Palestine from 1946-2012

It was surprising to find out how Palestine evolved over a short period of time. Some of his poems that he recited were If I Must Die, Over the Wall, And We Live On..., I am You and Freshly Baked Souls. His poems were all meaningful and although we were not able to fully relate to his poems as we have never experienced war, we were able to put ourselves in the shoes of the unfortunate Palestinians who are forced to face grief and misery every single day through his poems, it was heart-rending.

 Mr. Refaat also provided us with tips on how to write poetry. He started off with reading his poems from his favourite poet, John Donne. Also, practice makes perfect. Write and write. Read and read. Slowly, you will become more and more inspired and will start seeing details that will be useful in writing poetry.

Mr. Refaat truly is adore-worthy and definitely one of the people I look up to. Thank you for the eye-opening and worthful experience.