19 Varieties of Gazelle: Interpretive Post #1

     Throughout the reading of section one, it became very clear to me that Naomi was trying to prove a point. In her introduction she writes about how important it is for people in America to know that not all people who are Arabic are villains. Even though we had the tragedy of 9/11, her people go through similar events all of the time. I think that she was trying to compare the life of Arabic people to Americans and she wasn't trying to belittle the event, she was only using it as an example.
     In her poem For the 500th Dead Palestinian, Ibtisam Bozieh, she speaks beautifully about the topic at hand. Naomi writes about how devastating it is that Ibitsam died at the age of 13 for no good reason. She grieves for the little girl and says that it isn't fair. She was supposed to grow up and become a doctor and have a family and die of old age. I think that it is important for the world to know that not only are tragedies happening around us in the United States,but they are going on around the entire world. By her expressing her thoughts in her introduction, she incorporates these ideas throughout her entire work.
     Although it is easy to find this pattern throughout most of her poems, it speaks out very loudly in Those Whom We Do Not Know. The very first part of this poem made me stop and think. Sometimes Naomi's words can be so powerful that I feel like I personally am stuck in the middle of the war. "Because our country has entered into war, we can have no pleasant pauses anymore-" I could not imagine not having one second to think to myself because I was so frightened. For the people in her country to have to go through that constant feeling is really sad.
     Even though Naomi currently lives in America, it is still very hard for her to hear about the tragic events going on in her country. I think that this pattern will shine throughout the rest of this book of poetry, not in only the passages I have chosen.