Zeina Hashem Beck’s “Survival Sonnet”

A new poem from Zeina Hashem Beck.

By Zeina Hashem BeckDecember 18, 2023

• Around the World

• Poetry

ZEINA HASHEM BECK

Survival Sonnet

Gone, the rest of us. We plow memory,

survival, bleeding gums. The dead aren’t

departing by sea. There are decades of

song. Where were you in 2006?

In 2014? I heard Gaza’s still

on the balcony, beckoning Beirut

since 1982. Allo. Are you

listening? I haven’t been courageous.

The airport’s bombed, & the bridges. No one’s

allowing us anger or visas. Though

poetry pretends to complicate things,

the story’s simple. The land remains ours.

Forget the dumb doves. As for trusted news:

the grandmothers say the pots were hot.

The grandmothers say the pots were hot,

forget the dumb doves. As for trusted news,

the story’s simple: the land remains. Ars

Poetica pretends to complicate things,

allowing us anger or visas, though

the airport’s bombed, & the bridges. No one’s

listening. I haven’t been courageous

since 1982. Allo, are you

on the balcony, beckoning Beirut?

In 2014, I heard Gaza’s still

song. Where were you in 2006?

Departing by sea? There are decades of

survival, bleeding gums. The dead aren’t

gone. The rest of us, we plow memory.

¤

Rosalind Nashashibi (b. 1973 in Croydon, United Kingdom) received her BA in painting from Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield (UK), in 1995, after which she attended the Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow (UK), where she received her MFA in 2000. As part of her master’s degree, Nashashibi participated in a three-month exchange program in Valencia, California (United States), at CalArts in 2000. Nashashibi became the first artist in residence at the National Gallery in London, after the program was reestablished in 2020. She was a Turner Prize nominee in 2017, and represented Scotland in the 52nd Venice Biennale. Her work has been included in Documenta 14, Manifesta 7, the Nordic Triennial, and Sharjah 10. She was the first woman to win the Beck’s Futures prize in 2003.

¤

Featured image: Rosalind Nashashibi, from Electrical Gaza, 2015. Cinematography by Emma Dalesman, production by Kate Parker. Digital video still transferred from 16mm film, animation, color, sound 17:53 minutes. Courtesy of the artist and GRIMM Amsterdam, London, New York.