by Cathy Breen
Affectionate greetings. Some months have passed since I last wrote. It was with a heavy heart that I left Damascus in late April to return to the states. I would have given anything to remain in Syria another month. But my community was short-handed; I could no longer put off a cataract operation, and I had run out of money. Since May I have been trying from here to follow the tumultuous events in the Middle East. It is a time not only of great upheaval, but also one of great expectation.
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| Cathy Breen with Iraqi Child in Syria in 2009 |
News is almost non-existent of how Iraqi refugees are faring in Jordan and Syria, and I hope to travel in mid-October for another 6-week period. My journeys over the last years have depended on your generosity. I try to live simply, cook for myself, stay with friends or rent a room, take public transportation, etc. But I can’t go empty-handed to Iraqis whose situation grows more desperate day by day. And of course there are translator costs as well as Internet and phone use. Once again I am knocking at your door. Words cannot adequately express my gratitude, or that of Iraqi refugees who always ask me to thank you.
Last April a UNHCR representative in Damascus said sadly “The only real hope for Iraqi refugees is for the situation in their country to stabilize so they can return.” Tragically there is still little if any light to be seen at the end of the tunnel. Truthout wrote recently on their website “Hard as it is to believe, people seem to need to be reminded that we are, in fact, still at war in Iraq.” Last month, on a fateful Monday, 42 bombs exploded across Iraq killing over 100 Iraqis and wounding over 300. A series of bombings have killed 76 people so far just this week.
Our poet friend, David Smith-Ferri has a new book out, With Children Like Your Own – Iraq and Afghanistan Poems, 2008-2011. As I write you he is traveling with Kathy Kelly in the northeast. I have quoted David before and want to do so again.
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| David Smith-Ferri |
…If questions can lead us
like a star or signpost,
if questions can steer us like a lodestone,
let this be one: how can we be
responsible to Iraqis
ten thousand miles away,
caught in the teeth of war?
…if a question can lead us, try these
What part of a child is amputated
when her parent or relative is killed in front of her?
When she wakes after surgery,
where is the pain centered,
where are the bandages laid,
where does the wound ooze, the scar form?
Fingering the deep soils of our minds,
let us search for the sharpest and most tender words
and fit them onto the arrows of sentences.
let us notch them to the bowstring of paragraphs
and, aiming at the architects of this war,
release them.
(from The Eyes of These Two Children)
I send you warmest greetings and desires for peace,
Cathy Breen
55 E. 3rd St.,
New York, N.Y. 10003
or
Melissa Jameson
I am touched by your message, your greeting, and your desire for peace. Words-especially words like yours and David Smith-Ferri's--transmit the speaker as well as the speech--the story AND the storyteller.
ReplyDeleteThank you!