Khader Adnan, I salute you. Your decision to take this ultimate route of protest cries out to the whole world against the injustices that have separated you from your loved ones and your whole life.
I can only try to imagine the silent place you have chosen to visit in your human spirit on your journey to protest the evil you see around you.
I read a poem today - I hope it is not misinterpreted as inappropriate at this moment of terrible crisis. In a way that perhaps only poetry can, it has helped me try to understand a little more fully the courage of your decision. It helps me respect you more clearly and to express my admiration and awe your courage in being prepared to go as deep as life itself in your defence of what is true and authentic as against the superficial and banality of evil that oppresses you and your people. I presume humbly to attach it this greeting.
If I am to hear news of your death know we heard your cry of truthful farewell from a human spirit that enriches your family, your people and the whole world.
Thank you
Nicholas Postlethwaite
Inside
I am my own
geology, strata on strata
of the imagination, tufa
dreams, the limestone mind
honeycombed by the running away
of too much thought. Examine
me, tap with your words'
hammer, awaken memories
of fire. It is so long
since I cooled. Inside me,
stalectite and stalagmite,
ideas have formed and become
rigid. To the crowd
I am all outside.
To the pot-holing few there is a way
in along passages that become
narrower and narrower,
that lead to the chamber
too low to stand up in,
where the breath condenses
to the cold and locationless
cloud we call truth. It
is where I think.
R S Thomas