Lena Khalaf Tuffaha — Dukka

to call out a line of poetry that they'd remembered from school and somebody called

“something out from Yates and somebody called something out from Northern New Goanle”

and then somebody sheltered out hopes the thing with feathers and people kind of made noise as a recognition of all of those poems and then right after somebody said hopes the thing with feathers somebody quick as anything said I don't know about feathers but it certainly got claws which got a great response I thought was magnificent best part of the night and I loved that quick because it was so fast and so

witty and also it introduced some challenge to the lines of Emily Dickinson because we've gone from talking about lines of poetry and reciting them to thinking about the content of that and I loved the engagement with content not just recitation not just the art of the art but also looking at what

“the art is pointing it towards it's also got claws”

Dukka by Lina Khalaftufaha At the restaurant the loudest sound is the ocean a few blocks away a meteor shower is forecast a once in a lifetime event but the freeway flush with headlights precludes us from viewing the stars fall silently over us and the waves and the commuters

we review the menu we help the waitress pronounce Dukka we talk about aging and what is left to risk love is paying attention I remark and you repeat it to me love is also the father who plants an olive tree for every newborn trusting they will grow up to harvest it

love is the elderly woman who stood inside Damascus gate knowing the settlers were on a rampage knowing what her body would have to endure

love is a story we never tire of telling just as Shireen told it with a microphone

and a camera love lives in many rooms in the kitchen where Nadia teaches using only the Arabic names of ingredients and in the car where lame embroiderers wine colored roosters and cypresses on ancestral linen waiting to pick up her children from school

love is the children we carried at the protests leading their own marches in the rain let the stars fall

I have no idea what hope is but our people have taught me a million ways to love

this beautiful poem by Elina Khalaf to far her finishes with that line I have no idea what hope is and it has an intelligence of time and rather than looking to something about what might happen in the future it turns to the past with examples and examples of love and allows that to show up the present in terms of what the present is doing now to shape a future it starts off in a place of hospitality restaurant and the oceans nearby and there's a forecast meteor shower and the freeway with too many headlights and the stars are looking down silently

whether you can see them or not you can't see them because of the headlights there's characters in the poem there's a we that's referred to the two people who review the menu it sounds to me like two Arabs who are in a place where not everybody is an Arabic speaker because we help the waitress to pronounce ducca there's an intelligence of time that's so present the whole way throughout this poem

“particularly I think in one of the turns towards the end where we hear the speakers say about carrying children”

who are now leading protests but earlier on we see intelligence of time the meteor shower is forecast and the events of the now you know the traffic and the menu and the conversation with each other they're all about the present moment and then time continues throughout what her body would have to ensure

the anticipation of pain from that woman of Damascus gate and that we never tire of telling

is a way within which you touch back into repeated experiences of time and the embroidery of wine colored roosters and cypresses on ancestral linen

with the past by making something that'll endure as well as thinking forward to the future as to who use this maybe the children who are being picked up from school

there are seven explorations of what love is in this poem and the first one is love is paying attention

and then the other person the friend repeats it back to the speaker

“so repetition is an important technology technique music intelligence in this poem”

these two seem like old friends maybe siblings people who seem to have known each other for a long time the casual way within the reference to speaking to the waitress and talking about aging and talking about what is left to risk also these things seem to employ an intimacy to me

so much of the background of this poem and the whole book is from the fact that Lena Haleff

to Fahra is a Palestinian American poet and so the presence of pain and desire for freedom and profound celebration of identity and hospitality and language is present everywhere throughout this poem

“as repeated motifs throughout this whole book repetition is evoked in all kinds of ways”

it can be desperation and it can be a form of music as well or the way that friends repeat all stories to each other and the meteor shower is a form of repetition too it might be only once in a lifetime for a person but for the age of the universe it keeps on happening over and over again repetition is everyday as well you know the things people do to show love and friendship

with each other their regular habits as well as then something life flunk

“the repeated cry and yearning and hope for a better future for justice”

after the love is paying attention line there are these other definitions of what love is too love is the father who plans an olive tree for every newborn trusting they will grow up to harvest it there again is the present and the future being evoked in the time of this poem and love is the elderly woman who stood inside Damascus Gate knowing the settlers were on a rampage knowing what her body would have to ensure there's time there's repetition there's anxiety and anticipation

about pain and the present or pain in the future love is a story whenever tired of telling just as Shireen told it with a microphone and a camera Shireen that's been referred to here is Shireen Abu Akla who was she was shot dead by the Israeli military in 2022 the journalist she was wearing a blue press vest and she was covering a raid on the Jinnin refugee camp in the West Bank and Shireen is spoken of in this poem by her first name there's an intimacy in that there's a love in that

she was a hero for so many people in terms of how it is she covered and the many years of her journalistic integrity love lives in many rooms we hear slightly later in the poem and we hear these names Nadia Lima and the children as well and then love is the children we carried at protests and then referring to their ways within which those same children

are in a repeated way continuing on at protests our people have taught me a million ways to love

this is all about love under pressure the final mention of love which is also the final word are people have taught me a million ways to love is a way of elevating this poem of using the word love as a gathering call as a focus as a force as well of holding together and of making a declaration and establishing community of this poem is in four stances and the language is really vernacular but the line breaks allow you to see all kinds of terror

so the first line at the restaurant the loudest sound what's going to come you don't know and with the

“space that the line break allows you might wonder is this going to be the sound of traffic or a crash or something violent”

and then later in the stands the stars fall of course this is referring to a meteor shower but if you just look at it as the way that the line stops there before the sentence completes itself to talk about the meteor shower you can think of this almost like a dystopian vision present in this and we talk about aging and what is left you know that brings to mind what we leave behind and what changes and of course it goes on to say what is left to risk love is the children we carried is another line that can be looked at by itself before the line break carries you onto the completion of the sentence

I find myself thinking of those people returning to Gaza city those who survived carrying children love is the children we carried out the protests the line goes on to say

“and then repetition let the stars fall I have no idea the repetition again of the stars there's looking to a future”

with a certain defiance to say even if the world is going to end the repetition is to bring back again the sense of love in a certain sense saying that let me think about hope but cast it aside by saying I don't know how to define it

because there are those million ways to love the stars might fall the countless stars

but the million ways to love of the poems end are the million stars of community, of culture, of people, of connection that will endure forever [Music] Duka by Lena Khalaf Tufaha

“At the restaurant the loudest sound is the ocean a few blocks away”

a meteor shower is forecast a once in a lifetime event but the freeway flush with headlights precludes us from viewing the stars fall silently over us and the waves and the commuters we review the menu we help the waitress pronounce Duka we talk about aging and what is left to risk love is paying attention I remark and you repeated to me love is also the father who plants an olive tree for every newborn trusting they will grow up to harvest it love is the elderly woman who stood inside Damascus gate knowing the settlers were on a rampage knowing what her body would have to endure

love is a story we never tired of telling just as serene told it with a microphone and a camera

love lives in many rooms in the kitchen where Nadia teaches using only the Arabic names of ingredients and in the car where a lemma embroiderers wine colored roosters and cypresses on ancestral linen waiting to pick up her children from school love is the children we carried at the protests leading their own marches in the rain

let the stars fall I have no idea what hope is but our people have taught me a million ways to love

Duka by Lena Halaft Faha appears in something about living published in 2024 by University of Akronpress thanks to them for permission to use this point and to Frederick court right of the permissions company Poetry and bound is Andrea Provo, Carlos Anoni, Daro Chen, Sparamoree, Chris Hegel, Bill Sigmund and me, Rodrigo Tuma our music is composed and provided by Gotham Shrikishan and Blue doubt sessions

these episodes were made in New York City on unceded Lenape land special thanks to Will Salwyn, Navian and Adam Morel at digital island studios in Manhattan

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