Overview

As a Jew living in the diaspora, a Jew who knows the scent and taste of Israel, a Jew who speaks the language of Israel, a Jew who loves The Land, I have lost my direction home. Each morning, upon awakening, I have tried to stare down the horror of the Government of Israel's latest retaliatory response - actions it has been waiting to execute for a very long time. By writing these poems for each of the first 100 days of the war, I bear witness. Not to one side or the other, but to All who suffer from this war. Sometimes, this is the only response to such atrocities. Divisions create the groundwork for war. I am indivisible. I am a poet, writing. Writing with the hope of peace and unity and an immediate end to war in Israel and Gaza.So what is to become of this war after the first 100 days? Nothing certain. Only a few nods to an end of the carnage. No lasting good will. No good will at all. War does not bring with it good will. Perhaps all this war will bring is another poem or another 100 poems. And yet the calls for peace, the calls to cease, have accelerated. These calls are coming from the streets of Israel, from Israelis shouting down their oppressive Far-Right government, and even from the families of those who were killed or taken captive on October 7th. The plea for humanity rings the bells around the globe, from church steeples, to Gaza, to synagogues to mosques!

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Reviews

"These poems originate from a heart full of love for both nature and human beings, what a wonderful human she is herself.-Dr. Helen Caldicott In War Poems, Mimi German's compassion and heartbreak shine clearly through the carnage. A Jew who refuses the easy out of taking sides, she stands with her hands and her heart open to Arab and Jew alike-to all who are human, and to their suffering. She finds both beauty and horror in the first 100 days of a reality we would all rather ignore, and in so doing, she helps us to not look away. -Rabbi Ariel Stone, Temple Shir Tikvah, Portland The War Poems is a priceless meditation on the effect of war, even on those far from battle. The poems encourage us to consider not just the suffering of war, but the cost to our souls.-Pastor Steven Kimes When there was a roaring silence from so many, these poems comforted and companioned me with their ability to hold a moment, to look at a shard of glass with all lights reflecting through. They have helped me process the grief and shock of the latest war in the Middle East, through the continuing escalation in Gaza, through the sometimes inexplicable reaction of various nations. Thank you, Mimi, for your courage, your humanity, your search for truth, your dedication to this world.During the first hundred days of Israel's assault on Gaza after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Mimi German posted a poem a day. These daily meditations express tenderness, balance, and empathy for all who suffer and for the impermanent beauties of (even) blood-soaked moments.-K. Kendall, Ph.D., retired professor of Theatre and English. During a time when the most far-right government in Israel's history has been found guilty of a plausible case of genocide in Gaza by the International Court of Justice, it seems crucial for Jewish and other poets to present alternative visions, visions for peace, for Israel and Palestine. As a longtime poet and peace activist, Mimi German has the literary skills and political experience to address these urgent and complicated times. Her war poems-really, peace poems-are humane, thought-provoking, philosophically deep, and filled with the kind of astonishing, ""aha"" phrasings that Emily Dickinson said were the ingredients needed to create powerful and memorable poetry: ""war can be heard in the silence of death""; ""a genocide to which they've cheered l'chaim""; ""the game of revenge / ends in nightmares""; ""we all have forgotten never to forget."" While also mourning Israeli victims of the terrible 10/7 Hamas attacks, and pages before explicitly criticizing the extremist, hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, German writes: ""without anesthesia / let us hear the truth / about war."" And in these pages, she offers nonviolent truths (""how does one sleep / when the pillows of justice / are covered in bloodshed"") and truth-truce poems in ways that could hopefully warm even the coldest of hearts.-Eliot Katz, Poet and author of The Poetry and Politics of Allen Ginsberg"

Author Information

Mimi German is a poet and subversive artist dividing her time between living in the wilderness of Oregon's Steens Mt. and the urban strife of Portland, OR. Born a wanderer, Mimi left Philadelphia for NY in '82 for college. It was in NYC during the Reagan Administration that her first of a few non-violent disobedient arrests occurred. After college, she joined the peace movement, Shalom Achshav (Peace Now), in Israel just before the first Palestinian uprising. Once back in the US, Mimi eaked together money through nude modeling and by street busking in Halifax and Cambridge. In 1995, Mimi headed west to Oregon where she still resides. In 1997, Mimi was arrested again, this time on Shoshone land in Nevada with the late Chief Corbin Harney protesting against a proposed uranium dumpsite.In 2011 after the Fukushima nuclear disater, Mimi started an international group called RadCast which documented citizen radiation readings post-Fukushima, from around the globe. As an advocate for unhoused people in Portland, Mimi has spent years regularly testifying or shutting down Portland City Council meetings bringing attention to the needs of the most disenfranchised group of people who were dying on the streets from neglect, inclement weather, mental illness, and addiction. In 2020, Mimi, with her partner, purchased land in Southeastern Oregon in the foothills of Steens Mountain Wilderness. Here she completed her manuscript for Where Grasses Bend, Mimi's second book of poetry that began at the start of the pandemic. It was also in her high desert home that she discovered Ursula Le Guin's book, Out Here: Poems and Images from Steens Mountain Country, a book she keeps on display for visitors. Mimi had met Le Guin numerous times at the food co-op in which they were both members in Portland. Le Guin's spirit lives on in these canyons as one of the many ghost voices that you can hear in the songs of the Star Dance. Mimi's poetry is published internationally. In 2023, Mimi was honored with the title of State of Oregon Beat Poet Laureate.

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