Before There Is Nowhere to Stand

Appalled by the violence of Israel's Operation Cast Lead against Gaza in 2008-09, Joan Dobbie and her niece Grace Beeler, descendants of Holocaust survivors, issued a call for poems by writers of "Palestinian or Jewish heritage . . . for an anthology that strives for understanding . . . in the belief that poetry can create understanding and understanding can dull hatred."

This book is a tribute to resourceful imaginations. Its purpose is to give readers an occasion to perceive the aspirations and passions of those whose lives have been affected by the struggle--in Joseph Conrad's words, "to make you hear, to make you feel--it is, before all, to make you see."

The poems are arranged in seven sections, each dealing with an attribute or phase of the Palestine-Israel struggle. When possible, selections alternate between Jewish and Arab authors, effecting dissonance in subject, emphasis, and attitude--an uneasy multiculturalism.

“"The story of Israel and Palestine is ugly, tragic, human. But the book you hold in your hands exists to remind you that the story is not finished." --Alicia Ostriker”

At this time in history, nothing could be more important than the voices of poets who fulfill a noble intention. War is in the headlines and on the news. These poets are the connective tissue of the hearts and souls involved.

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