Lion from Gaza by Stuart Rees

For Abdul Sabawi.  Lygon Street, Melbourne 23 December 2013

His heart is in Gaza but he cannot go,

waves wash the shore but he cannot see

lights of the fishing boats, steps in the sands,

pictures for poems in a foreign land.

Dreams come and go in the heat of the bush,

challenge to pen on a paper trail

to create new lives with horizons to teach,

stories to tell and techniques to reach.  

He paints with his grief, makes links to his heart

for time when it comes to place on a page

rhyming and rhythms of verses at play

nurtured by soil that is so far away.

Images come in the day and at night,

adrenalin runs and women appear-

a compass to guide his scribbling so much

with translating daughter, sensuous touch

To drink, derive succour from Matilda’s air,

applause from small kids as key source of flair

to conjure from muses’ each artistic outline

to breathe and sustain, Gaza, Palestine.

From a book of poetry by Stuart Rees titled ‘A Will to Live’ published by Ginninderra Press 2014