Poetry And Politics Should Not Be Mixed Poem by Shalom Freedman

I love my poetry pure and personal
The feelings of the single soul
In loneliness and love
In sadness and in happiness

But when they call us animal names
And say they want to kill us all
And when they make us into microbes and cancers
They say they will exterminate

How can I go on just by myself only for myself?

Mustn’t I say I come from a people
Whose Name for God means Peace
And who teach Kindness as life’s first quality?
A people who perhaps more than any other
Have suffered cruelty in their struggle to survive?

Mustn’t I with my small words nonetheless strive to say
We will fight to survive
Though
We in Israel want no wars and no hate and no killing and no death
We want our neighbors to thrive and prosper
And all peoples to live and worship in their own way

Mustn’t I say
War will be waged only reluctantly as last resort
As Peace for all
Is what we need and pray
Lion with the lamb
Under fig tree and vine
As our prophets taught in the Holy Land
So many years ago.