{"id":501,"date":"2009-01-04T15:51:01","date_gmt":"2009-01-04T15:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/?p=501"},"modified":"2009-01-04T16:40:17","modified_gmt":"2009-01-04T16:40:17","slug":"jerusalem-james-fenton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/01\/04\/jerusalem-james-fenton\/","title":{"rendered":"Jerusalem – James Fenton"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Alan<\/a> and Fiona<\/a> gave me a copy of Being Alive for Christmas. It’s an anthology of poems dealing with many themes and written by many many different authors. It is a wonderful gift and one that I’m really enjoying \ud83d\ude42\n<\/p>\n

Within the covers of this book I found a poem entitled Jerusalem<\/strong><\/em> by James Fenton. It seemed apt to share this poem given the current crisis in Gaza<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

It’s hard to watch such scenes and remain dispassionate. It’s a conflict, and indeed a place, that polarizes opinion. Yet it disturbs me that Israel as a nation seems to have forgotten that no nation in history has succeeded, through force of arms, to subjugate an entire population forever. During the second world war Hitler came to the same realization and devised his ‘Final solution to the problem of the Jews’ which culminated in one of the most barbaric and evil acts in human history – the Holocaust. Yet sixty years on we now hear of Israeli ministers talking about a their own final solution or Holocaust in Gaza<\/a>. It strikes me as paradoxical that people are often doomed to become the very thing they loathe the most, we are doomed to become what we behold<\/em>. I recall vividly the moment when a Jewish friend of mine told me that in her opinion<\/p>\n

\nthe only the thing the leaders in Israel learn’t from the holocaust was how to become Nazi’s themselves.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I recall how shocked I was at that statement, it felt wrong. It felt especially wrong that a Jewish person could make such a comparison. As I watch the news reports though, and as I listen to the rhetoric coming out of Tel Aviv – I wonder if history will prove her right?<\/p>\n

Getting back to the poem, I think it is extremely poignant and made so by the conflicting claims the city inspires which are expressed in the poem as alternating, mutually exclusive statements – this structure is a striking metaphor in itself.<\/p>\n

\n
\r\nI\r\nStone cries to stone,\r\nHeart to heart, heart to stone,\r\nAnd the interrogation will not die\r\nFor there is no eternal city\r\nAnd there is no pity\r\nAnd there is nothing underneath the sky\r\nNo rainbow and no guarantee \u2013\r\nThere is no covenant between your God and me.\r\n\r\nII\r\nIt is superb in the air.\r\nSuffering is everywhere\r\nAnd each man wears his suffering like a skin.\r\nMy history is proud.\r\nMine is not allowed.\r\nThis is the cistern where all wars begin,\r\nThe laughter from the armoured car.\r\nThis is the man who won\u2019t believe you\u2019re what you are.\r\n\r\nIII\r\nThis is your fault.\r\nThis is a crusader vault.\r\nThe Brook of Kidron flows from Mea She\u2019arim.\r\nI will pray for you.\r\nI will tell you what to do.\r\nI\u2019ll stone you. I shall break your every limb.\r\nOh, I am not afraid of you,\r\nBut maybe I should fear the things you make me do.\r\n\r\nIV\r\nThis is not Golgotha.\r\nThis is the Holy Sepulchre,\r\nThe Emperor Hadrian\u2019s temple to a love\r\nWhich he did not much share.\r\nGolgotha could be anywhere.\r\nJerusalem itself is on the move.\r\nIt leaps and leaps from hill to hill\r\nAnd as it makes its way it also makes its will.\r\n\r\nV\r\nThe city was sacked.\r\nJordan was driven back.\r\nThe pious Christians burned the Jews alive.\r\nThis is a minaret.\r\nI\u2019m not finished yet.\r\nWe\u2019re waiting for reinforcements to arrive.\r\nWhat was your mother\u2019s real name?\r\nWould it be safe today to go to Bethlehem?\r\n\r\nVI\r\nThis is the Garden Tomb.\r\nNo, this is the Garden Tomb.\r\nI\u2019m an Armenian. I am a Copt.\r\nThis is Utopia.\r\nI came here from Ethiopia.\r\nThis hole is where the flying carpet dropped\r\nThe Prophet off to pray one night\r\nAnd from here one hour later he resumed his flight.\r\n\r\nVII\r\nWho packed your bag?\r\nI packed my bag.\r\nWhere was your uncle\u2019s mother\u2019s sister born?\r\nHave you ever met an Arab?\r\nYes, I am a scarab.\r\nI am a worm. I am a thing of scorn.\r\nI cry Impure from street to street\r\nAnd see my degradation in the eyes I meet.\r\n\r\nVIII\r\nI am your enemy.\r\nThis is Gethsemane.\r\nThe broken graves look to the Temple Mount.\r\nTell me now, tell me when\r\nWhen shall we all rise again?\r\nShall I be first in that great body count?\r\nWhen shall the tribes be gathered in?\r\nWhen, tell me, when shall the Last Things begin?\r\n\r\nIX\r\nYou are in error.\r\nThis is terror.\r\nThis is your banishment. This land is mine.\r\nThis is what you earn.\r\nThis is the Law of No Return.\r\nThis is the sour dough, this the sweet wine.\r\nThis is my history, this my race\r\nAnd this unhappy man threw acid in my face.\r\n\r\nX\r\nStone cries to stone,\r\nHeart to heart, heart to stone.\r\nThese are the warrior archaeologists.\r\nThis is us and that is them.\r\nThis is Jerusalem.\r\nThese are dying men with tattooed wrists.\r\nDo this and I\u2019ll destroy your home.\r\nI have destroyed your home.  You have destroyed my home.\r\n\r\n     by James Fenton\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alan and Fiona gave me a copy of Being Alive for Christmas. It’s an anthology of poems dealing with many themes and written by many many different authors. It is a wonderful gift and one that I’m really enjoying \ud83d\ude42 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[382,407],"class_list":["post-501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-personal","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virtualchaos.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}