PoetryKenneth WebbJune 29, 2025My eyes are deep, I love my work, I will not compromise my beliefs, And for me this is good, I love to walk the beach, And one day I will walk the beach, I am so richly blessed, I will lie me down upon my bed, I am a beautiful man, Morrocan Friend

Displaced Palestinian Friend

POETRY

Displaced Palestinian Friend

2015 ~ See Author Note

My eyes are deep,
Laughter alights within them.
And the sadness I sometimes feel,
I do not allow to spoil my day.

I love my work.
I have God's ability in my hands
to create something out of nothing.

I always do my best.

I will not compromise my faith.
I will not compromise who I am.
I will not turn my back on what I am.

I will, though, compromise my religion.
Religion is not the Guarantor of my faith.

My Faith is not hamstrung by religion.

I can love a man. I can love a woman.

For me, this is good.
This IS of Him, Her, She, They, It, even.
I have assurance.
Abandon me?
I will not be abandoned.

Nor will abandonment
here,
in this life,
be my confrontation,
my outcome…
except in minds
so minuscule,
so locked within
the never touching train tracks
that clackety-clack, clackety-clack
to religious oblivion.

I acknowledge and accept the reality of the Holocaust.
I acknowledge and accept the reality of the Catastrophe.

To ask me to accept either one by denying the other, will break the bond.
It will remove from my eyes the light that the person suggesting my need to choose can see.

In an instant, the light in my eyes will be the darkness of pitch to that person.
Do not test me, or goad me.

I love to walk the beach.
I love to feel the hot sand
beneath my feet.

I love to hear the crash of waves
upon the seashore,
The call of seagulls.

One day I will walk the beach
with a hand in my hand,
We will be at peace
with each other,
And with the world.

I am so richly blessed.
There are people
who DO take an
interest in me.
So I am not alone;
and I have only
to remember
this one thing.

The Creator by whatever Form I know not

has only to speak,

and it is!

I will lie me down upon my bed
in the watches of the night,
and I will listen to the night.
The gentle breathing of my Camel
close to my head gives me warmth by which I can rest and yet be alert.

I listen to the voices of the past.
I know that these are my ancestors guiding me.
I have nothing to fear.

I am a beautiful man.
I am a beautiful creation.
I will be who I am.
I will be what I am.

I have stood at the wailing wall

I have gazed upon the Dome of the Rock.

I have visited the Golden Heights, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa and Tiberius.

I have been privileged to to swim in the Galil.

I am very aware of the Catastrophe

This must penetrate the minds of those who presume their right to eject then occupy.

It is now the fourth watch of the night. My camel has opened one eye. I will snatch another hour

Then we will ride on to the Negev, my ancestral home.

Author Note

Written in 2015 under the title Moroccan Friend, this poem has always been one of my favourites.

Earlier this month I retitled it Displaced Moroccan Friend.

Last week, I watched a BBC documentary series about the Birth of the State of Israel. The documentary explored this subject through two Jewish descendants and two Palestinian descendants. Despite my three visits to Israel between 1995-2002, the Nakba ~ Arabic for Catastrophe was never explained by my hosts.

The BBC documentary first aired in March 2023 and as I watched it I became increasingly aware that all four descendants had any incline of what would happen on 7 October 2023.

It is for this reason that I have rewritten this piece, and the central character makes it abundantly clear. he knows of both the Holocaust and the Catastrophe. He acknowledges both. Then he draws a line in the sand with a warning not to expect him to accept the Catastrophe and deny the Holocaust, nor accept the Shoah but deny the the Nakba.

He goes one step further in demonstrating his reaction to the person who demands he make a choice one way or the other.

“I acknowledge and accept the reality of the Holocaust. I acknowledge and accept the reality of the Catastrophe. To ask me to accept either one by denying the other, will break the bond.

It will remove from my eyes the light that the person suggesting my need to choose can see.

In an instant, the light in my eyes will be the darkness of pitch to that person. Do not test me, or goad me. ”

— IBM KTW

Author Note

Written in 2015 and in tribute to a friend in Morocco, which country is beautiful, whose people are wonderful, yet whose mindset sees me and my people as an affront to their God.