Israeli singer-songwriter, Shira Z Carmel of The Hazlenuts, a swing band, approached me years ago about turning a poem of mine into a song, for their new album.
It was an intensely personal, inward poem (and not really cheery), but I was grateful to collaborate creatively with a fellow artist — especially, being Egyptian/Lebanese, and coming from a part of the world where our relationship with Israel is strained or mutually suspicious, at best.
Here, I thought, was an opportunity to make art as a form of peace offering.
I was happy to see our collaboration mentioned in The Jerusalem Post
and, particularly, pleased when Shira shared with me this surprising upbeat, live version of our song that The Hazlenuts performed on the most popular national radio station in Israel, Galgalatz :)
Below, is the text to my poem, if you wish to read along:
You, Again?
You again, of the singing wound
here again, lost and found and lost
trafficking in metaphysics and eternity
as your nearest hopes
where to, pilgrim
outdistancing chasms
rationing emotions
seeking sustenance
for the self too subtle and proud
for words
nocturnal flower, nurtured solitude
watered night
there you go, restraining the impulse
to say it all at once
even surrounded by silence
still filled with noise
now, having stirred some thrumming
hour when the moon throws
her full-bodied light
over all, like a silver screen night
of silent films, the whirring
of the reel...