“Poetry begins in delight and ends in wisdom,” says Robert Frost. But while going through “Crime Scene Collection” of Albert M. Jabara, one shouldn’t expect delight because it’s not a recollection of thoughts in tranquility. There is wisdom bred by deep pain. Jabara was born in a little village directly opposite Mount Haramoon in Lebanon in 1947. He immigrated to Canada at the age of 12. He is now a Canadian national, a prolific writer and a born poet who has a sensitive soul. Jabara had seen death and hunger that breed madness and make an ordered life impossible. Man’s cruelty to man, open injustice and the death of the world conscience fill Jabara’s heart with a sense of loss, anguish and anger that flow through his poems. See these lines of his poem “Eye and Pen Good Enough for Me.”
My pen consumes my brain
Wars eat Arabia and Moslems
You ask for light poems
Filled with romance and mysteries
Leave me be!….
You ask for light poems
To please your Yankee friends
Laughs don’t come from seas of sorrow…
A heavy poem, my friend
Is a golden treasure
It is a pain that cures pain
Every time you read it
It is the poem that first originated
In Arabia and was first read
By an Arabian knight to his horse
Every culture has a beginning
Measured by time
My Dad taught me
The first chapter on my culture,
Minutes after my birthday
When he touched my forehead
And said, “Your religion is Islam,
Arabic is your culture
Poetry is your sword…
Use it; don’t use deadly force
Humans grow old and die,
Cultures wear many skins;
Beneath each skin
There’s always a new poem.
Arnold Toynbee talks about an encounter between civilizations; Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington are concerned about the clash of civilizations, but Jabara believes that there are many skins beneath each skin of culture. He knows about these different layers of cultures. Skin is necessary to save human or animal flesh and bones, as different layers give them depth and save them from the scorching sun of hostile human attitude and inclination. Here is the wisdom that was derived from the ancient Arab culture that was the cradle of great poetry for centuries. In the above stanzas, there are references to that great age, especially in this stanza when he says:
A heavy poem, my friend
Is a golden treasure
It is a pain that cures pain
Every time you read it
It is the poem that first originated
In Arabia and was first read
By an Arabian knight to his horse
The reference to the Seven Suspended Odes (Saba’a Muallaqat) of pre-Islamic tradition is quite clear in this stanza.
When Jabara writes about Iraq or Palestine, he seems to be carried away by emotions, and sometimes overwhelmed by the grief seeing the rivers of blood flowing in these ancient lands that have taught religion, morality and civilization to the whole world. Without mincing words he criticizes George Bush, Tony Blair and Ariel Sharon for their part in the atrocities that continue in Iraq and Palestine.
The Iraqi people’s pathetic condition is quite visible in this poem. See some lines of his poem “Iraq, Don’t Die Before Me.”
Each grain they touch
Turns into blood
Then it returns to soil
Their loved ones are mixed with earth
This is the memory killers left behind
Arabia bleeds for Iraq
Baghdad’s funeral
Will not end until Bush and Blair leave
America’s crime is an Arab shame
Arabs forgot Iraq
In his poem “Palestine, Eternal Mother” his heart melts away.
Palestine, rise from your ashes!
Hell released its reservoir
Only days ago!
Lava flows, pure like honey…
Guided to reach bloody hands
Killers of your people, trees and fields
Have no place to hide —
Lava’s flames
Destined to burn their hearts
And prolong their lives and pains
Killers of your people, trees and fields,
Their final places in zones unknown:
They shall burn their, rot but not die…
There are many heart-rending poems in this book. “Crime Scene Collection” was translated into Arabic in May 2007. The reader should take this collection of poems as the anguished cry of an honest soul.
