Eyeless In Gaza Poem by Day Williams

At the Philistines' Temple
I used to lead the Jews, you understand?
Today a servant leads me by the hand,
I'm sightless and you lead me to perform
For Philistines, my enemies, a swarm
Of locusts who have plagued our land for years
‘Til, like the sun, I cleared the atmosphere:
Inspired by the Spirit of the Lord,
I killed a thousand and a thousand more.
If you don't mind, put me where I can feel
The temple pillars, so that I may lean
Against them, thank you for your courtesy
And I will tell you how this came to be.

My Birth
The Israelites did evil in God's sight
So He let Philistines exert their might
Against them forty years, then sent a man
To start delivering them from their hands.

A man of Zorah named Manoah wed
A woman who was barren, childless, dead
Inside, until the angel of the Lord
Appeared to her with a heartening report:

She would conceive and bear a son; with might
He'd start delivering the Israelites
From Philistine control; a Nazirite,
He would be set apart and not drink wine,
No razor ever was to touch his hair
And you will raise him by these rules, with care.

So I was born and grew, and in me stirred
The Spirit of the Lord, which God conferred.
As muscles bulged on arms, and as my legs
Were thick as tree trunks, village boys would beg
To learn the secret of my strength, and I
Told them a secret must a secret lie
Or else it is no secret any more,
Yet it's no secret that to trust the Lord
Gives men their strength, so spend your time in prayer.
God knows my strength was in my uncut hair,
Which was divided into seven braids,
And strength would leave me if my head were shaved.

I'm the Jews' one-man weapon of destruction—
At least I was until I lost my unction:
A man can tempt the Lord and play with sin,
Have everything he wants and feels he wins
Until the Lord says, "I have had enough, "
And like a father with a child, gets tough
And takes the toys that tantalize the child,
For God confronts his children running wild.

My Wife
When I had eyes, I failed to use them well:
They landed on a woman, and I fell.
I told my parents, "Get that girl for me, "
(That's how much I respected family)
She had the curves and moves like Pharaoh's queen—
I didn't care that she was Philistine
Or that the Philistines were enemies
Who stung us, ravaged us worse than disease;
These Dagon idol-worshipers who hate
The Jews, despise the Lord-I am too late
To recognize how wrong I was, controlled
By lust and rage-when mad, I'd rip large holes
In soldiers' bodies, for they played my wife
A fool, their tool, for which I took their lives.

I traveled with my parents down to Timnah,
Where she resided, and we neared the vineyards
When a young lion came toward me and roared.
Without delay the Spirit of the Lord
Came on me with such power that I tore
The beast apart with my bare hands-the gore
I washed off in a spring; I never told
My parents how I killed it like a goat.

Returning later, going to marry her,
My bride, the Philistine from Timnon, there
Where I had killed the lion was a swarm
Of bees and honey: They had made their home
In his warm carcass, so I reached inside
And scooped out honey which I ate as I
Went down the road to Timnon for my bride,
I met and talked with her, and her I liked.

As was the custom, I set out a feast
And when they ate and drank, and noise increased.
I said, "Let's bet for thirty sets of clothes

Upon a riddle that I have composed, "
And they agreed, so I said, "From the eater,
Something to eat, from strength comes something sweet."
The townsmen only had a week to solve
The riddle, but to solve it were resolved.
Three days on, they could not reply to me,
And on the fourth day they told my wife this: "We'll
Burn you and all your father's house to graves
If you don't coax your husband to explain
His riddle. Did you come here to rob us?
My wife came in to me and raised a fuss
And nagged and threw the furniture around
And broke the dishes (an annoying sound)
And wouldn't sleep with me until she wore
Me down like sandpaper that rubs a board,
And like a fool I told her, she told them.
Before the sunset on day seven, men
From town said to me, "What is sweeter than
Honey? What's stronger than a lion? " Man,
That stung me like bare feet on desert sand
In summer heat, and I told them, "If you
Had not gone plowing with my heifer, true
Answers you never would have found in days
Or weeks or years, " and then my anger blazed:
God's Spirit came on me; to Ashkelon
I went and struck down thirty men of brawn,
Stripped them of their belongings, gave their clothes
To those who had explained my riddle, closed
The door behind me and went to see my father.
Behind my back they gave my wife to the man
Who had been by me at the wedding. I
Discovered that the father of my wife
Had so betrayed, so to set the score
Right with Philistines, I started war,
My private war, by going out to catch
Three hundred foxes and in pairs, attached
Their tails, and fastened torches to each pair
And let them go in standing grain-the glare
From a setting sun is nowhere as bright
As fields of grain in flames with blazing light,
Fire that burns olive groves and vineyards too.

The Philistines asked why I was so bent
On this destruction, and they learned my friend
Had been provided with my wife, and turned
To my wife and father-in-law, and they burned
The pair to death. "Since you've behaved like brats, "
I told the townsmen, "like a momma cat
Whose kits were killed by dogs, I won't desist
‘Til I exact my full revenge for this."
So I attacked them like a rabid beast
And let the widows weep for the deceased.

To the Servant
You have moved me, my friend, too far away
From pillars: Move me back and let me stay.

The Donkey's Jawbone
Then I went and I stayed inside a cave
In Etam's rock while Philistines, the knaves,
Gathered an army to take me prisoner,
Persuading Judah's men to hand me over,
So they tied me with two new ropes and led
Me toward the enemy. I felt no dread
Or fear: God's Spirit came on me in power
And ropes around my arms weakened like flowers,
Bindings dropped from hands, a jawbone lay on
The desert sand, a donkey's jawbone gone
Long from the donkey's body, and I swung
My makeshift weapon at the old and young
And ho! I laughed at many widows made
By me, Judge Samson, Sun-Man, unafraid,
I swung the bone on flesh ‘til I cracked bone,
Blood spurted, eyes rolled, men dropped with moans.
That day I killed a thousand men and stated,
"Using a donkey's jawbone I have made
Donkeys of them, and with a donkey's jawbone
I have struck down a thousand men like straw
Before the wind and rain, " then I was thirsty,
And the Lord opened up a spring that burst
With spray out of a hollow place in Lehi
I drank, my strength returned, I was revived.

People respected me and hated me,
For that is how a great man has to be:
A champion who lives out their pale dreams,
Or else a scamp (they say)who scorns and schemes,
An object of the people's bitterness
On whom they vent self-loathing and distress...
Never mind. Musing so, I have digressed.
I'm at the right place now. Thank you for that.
Did I tell you my hair was growing back?

In Gaza
I went to Gaza, met a woman, cute,
I didn't care she was a prostitute,
And I went in to spend the night with her.
A snitch told Philistines that I was there,
They ringed the building while I stroked her hair.
And planned to kill me at first light of dawn
For I could see them through the blinds we'd drawn
And I could hear the plans they made-too loud-
And so, to thwart the plan from this rude crowd,
I got up in the middle of the night
With flickering torches as my only light
I dodged their watchmen half-asleep by grates
I ran down streets to reach the city gate,
Took hold of the gate doors, pulled up the posts
And tore them loose-my back was to the coast—
I raised the bar and put it on my shoulders
And carried all this weight atop the hill
That faces Hebron on the east, the killers
In Gaza rose and saw my silhouette,
A man with crossbars on his shoulders.... Get

Some water for me-even vinegar
Would do, no wine, I don't drink that-prefer
God's water in a cup, as cold as streams
In mountains where a man may rest and dream.

Delilah
You ask me about Delilah, delicate,
Deceitful, deadly, Delilah, who struts
‘Round Sorek Valley, wealthy from the bribes
She took against me: May there be a scribe
To tell about her peevish treachery,
She wore me down the way the roaring sea
Smacks rocks, and grain by grain, and bit by bit,
Rocks lose their bulk and shrink; if she had spit
Into my face because I'd done her wrong,
That would have been my due, but I was strong
And rulers of the Philistines desired
To know the secret of my strength and bribed
Her and she turned on me, though I had done
No wrong to her; I loved her from the sun
Rising in morning ‘til it set, through nights
To morning's glow; faithful to her despite
The way she pestered me and questioned me
About my strength-its secret- "Let me be"
I told her many times, "Tie me with thongs, "
I told her, "seven fresh thongs: I'll be strong
No more, " and she would hide men in my room
And call me, and supposed she'd watch my doom,
No! I would snap the thongs as easily
As string will snap when close to flame-you see,
I lied to her, she had me tied, she cried
Out, I broke free at once-perhaps my pride
Had got the best of me, because I tricked
Her twice more, and each time she grew more ticked
Off, questioned that I loved her when I'd fooled
Her three times in all, so I had to school
Her: That I was a Nazarite, one set
Apart for God while at my mother's breast,
And that no one had ever cut my hair,
For if my head were shaved, to my despair
My strength would leave me and I'd be as weak
As any other man-that woman sneaked
Off to the rulers of the Philistines,
Who gave her silver for her evil scheme:
When I was sleeping in her lap, she called
A man to shave my hair ‘til I was bald;
He shaved my seven braids, my strength was gone.
Then she called out, "The Philistines are on
You, Samson, " and I thought that I would free
Myself as I had done before-but, see,
I did not know that God had gone from me.

They seized me, bound me, and they gouged my eyes
With not a Jew in town to hear my cries;
They shackled me, imprisoned me, compelled
Me to grind grain as women do so well.

Little have I put trust in Him who made
Creation and humanity; I've prayed
When sad and troubled, grieved, broken, depressed,
And I will pray again, for I'm distressed,
They dragged me out to entertain the crowd
And chained me to these pillars like a lout.

You took your Holy Spirit from me, Lord:
Let me once more receive His power poured,
That I may take revenge on them in death
And pull their temple down with my last breath.

~Day Williams