In the heart of the siege and war, where bombing and smoke dominate the stricken Gaza sky, Maryam Gosh holds her pen, as it is the last remaining wing of will. Maryam, the Palestinian poet who was prevented from realizing her dream of participating in the “Prince of Poets” program in Abu Dhabi, was not just a poet seeking to compete, but rather a voice that represented the suffering of hundreds of thousands of besieged residents of the Gaza Strip, where travel has become an unattainable dream, and dreams are an unattainable luxury. .
Maryam successfully passed the first interview for the program, and was chosen from among hundreds of poets to be on the list of forty, but the ongoing aggression in Gaza was waiting. Closed crossings and besieged dreams. “Dreaming and traveling have become impossible,” Maryam says, describing a harsh reality imposed by the siege, geography, and politics.
Despite the wounds that have not yet healed, especially after the loss of her father, Maryam tried to break the walls of the siege in the way she knows how: with poetry. “I tried to knock on the tank with the voice of my poem,” Maryam says, recalling the image of the martyr Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani, to make her voice an honest message that expresses pain and hope, and makes Gaza present despite everything.
Maryam’s experience was not easy, as she conducted interviews over the intermittent Internet, and the few minutes of the presentation took many hours due to intermittent communications. However, Maryam praises the efforts of the program organizers and the judging panel, who showed patience and understanding. This support added a touch of hope to Maryam’s experience, even though it was not complete.
Maryam was not only seeking to represent herself, but she hoped that her poetry would be an ambassador for the voice of the Gaza Strip and Palestine, a voice that would remind the world that the Palestinian issue is not only a political tragedy, but also a humanitarian and cultural tragedy. She says, “I hope that Gaza and Palestine will be present in the poems of poets, as it is the first issue for the great Arab homeland, for poetry, and for humanity.”
Her story is not just the story of a poet seeking to achieve her dream in the world of poetry, but rather the story of the daily suffering experienced by the people of Gaza. In every line of her poems, the suffering of an entire people is hidden, and in every attempt she makes to get on stage, the steadfastness of a people that refuses to have their voice erased is revealed. Despite the war and siege, her words soar, carrying the pain and dreams of her people, confirming that poetry, even in the darkest circumstances, is capable of creating new wings that fly over the walls of the siege.
War and death…an unchosen friendship
Browsing through Maryam’s texts and diaries through her Facebook account gives you a comprehensive picture of what Gaza and its people are experiencing. In one of her poignant texts, Maryam describes the moment she became friends with death. She says, “I became friends with death, and I began to tell time, washed with the antidote to annihilation, that I am not afraid to cross it.” This phrase reveals the extent of the pain that Gaza is experiencing, where death and life mix on a daily basis. Maryam is not only a witness to the war, but she is one of its victims, as if people there have become a scene of endless battles.
Maryam’s diaries reflect the suffering of the people of the Gaza Strip with the simplest necessities of life. She talks about bread contaminated with worms and mold, about queues stretching like open wounds in the heart of the camp, and about three women who died in crowding to get a loaf of bread. Maryam asked the bread in bitterness, “Is your price, son of Sanabel, our blood and bleeding?” These are words that exude sadness, but they also carry a deep awareness of the tragic reality of Gaza.
Maryam talks about her father, who passed away as a martyr, not only because of illness, but also because of the siege. She remembers how he died while abroad and she was unable to reach him, so she said goodbye to him via video call. She says: “Is it too much for us Gazans to say goodbye to our loved ones who are leaving? Is it too much for us Gazans to say goodbye to our loved ones who are leaving?” These words sum up the tragedy of the siege that deprives Palestinians even of saying goodbye to their loved ones. The closure of the Rafah crossing prevented her from saying goodbye to her father in person after he traveled for treatment in Egypt.
A martyr “shivering” from the cold
In one of the pictures of daily life that Maryam draws, she describes a girl in the Nuseirat camp storming into a sewing workshop and screaming, “I don’t want clothes. I want a big blanket. My brother was martyred a while ago. I don’t want my brother to shiver from the cold.” This story sums up the harshness of life in Gaza, where even the dead are not allowed to rest.
Despite all this pain, Maryam Gosh tries to make her poetry a window of hope. Her participation in the “Prince of Poets” program, which was interrupted due to the war, was an attempt to break the walls of the siege in a different way. She tries to make her poetry a message to the world that Gaza is not just a tragedy, but also a place of dreams and creativity.
Maryam’s experience highlights the challenges faced by Palestinians in Gaza. Through her poetry and texts, she gave a voice to the victims of Israeli aggression, and painted a vivid picture of life under bombardment and siege. Her words provide a glimpse into the daily hardships faced by the people of Gaza, from food shortages to the traumas of war to the daily barbaric killing carried out by the Israeli machine of destruction.
Maryam Gosh was unable to go to the “Prince of Poets” theater in Abu Dhabi due to the ongoing Israeli siege and aggression. But, amidst the rubble and destruction, she made a crown worthy of the patient princesses of Gaza with her pen. Maryam did not step on stage, but with her poems and texts she wrote a vivid picture of the women of Gaza: the displaced women in tents, the mothers who embrace their children in the cold, and the martyrs who received the greatest honor from their Lord!..
