?Delicate memories, painstaking parallels, and subtle wit make up Mosab Abu Toha’s poetry collection Forest of Noise. The Palestinian Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and essayist paints a deeply poignant picture of life in Gaza under occupation. Written with great poetic conviction, the book depicts what it means to be part of a collective suffering and the irreparable loss that comes with it.

Recollection and loss. Abu Toha’s poems are laced with memories from his past growing up in Gaza. He blends the small and trivial with the traumatic and indelible, often blurring the lines between the two. He remembers when he was a child, living in Yaffa with his parents, eating from his mother’s cooking, and playing with his friends. He reminisces about memories of his grandparents, still alive and young, and imagines scenarios with his grandfather, whose only picture he lost and whose grave was tragically demolished. The more he remembers, the more readers are faced with a deep sense of loss for those very memories.

A world where everything is sentient. Destruction takes center stage in a lot of his poems and readers see the perspectives of not only the people affected, but also the inanimate objects. He personifies things destroyed in the occupation. Stones from wrecked walls suffer from amnesia, forgetting the picture frames they once hid behind. Thirsty roots beg for water, the sea weeps through eye sockets in the sand, the walls wake up from their sleep, and the scars on children’s faces look for their assailants.

On your knees, we are on our knees. The poem On Your Knees stands out as the title is repeated in exclamations every few lines, evoking an inescapable sense of dehumanization. Abu Toha takes readers through the time when he was forced to drop to his knees without any justifiable reason while crossing a border with his wife and kids. The poem is deeply urgent and one of the most vicarious in the collection, depicting a moving experience that he and so many Palestinians are made to go through.

The collection doesn’t leave you after you put it down, with poems that leave you emotionally disturbed, others that awaken in you a haunting sense of empathy, and some that bring forth feelings of deep resentment. The collection is a testament to Abu Toha’s powerful spirit and resilience in the face of survival. It’s a must-read for poetry lovers — and one you’ll find yourself going back to again and again.

WHERE TO GET IT- You can find the hardcover edition of Forest of Noise at Diwan and BookSpot. You can also get the ebook on Amazon, Google Books, and Kobo.

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