Week Four General Writing Exercise

After reading poems by both Mahmoud Darwish, “To a Young Poet” and Tuvia Ruebner, “A Postcard from Tel Aviv”, I really liked the work of Mahmoud Darwish, I felt like at this point in my lifetime and given my personality, upbringing, and views on the world that his work was a little easier to understand and more relatable than that of Tuvia Ruebner. Thus, I decided to continue to research Mahmoud Darwish’s work and to write a response on one of his other pieces. After reading a couple, the one that really stood out to me and resonated with me was “It is Night and She is Lonely.” 

Given I am going through a rough patch in my relationship right now, I found this poem to be very relatable. In a way, I see myself in the shoes of the lonely woman that is being observed or admired in this poem. I find it interesting and so common to be sitting somewhere alone, next to people who are also alone. Regardless of whether or not a conversation is started up between the two individuals, when I am in this situation I always catch myself watching the other person out of the corner of my eye. Trying to see if they are watching me too, but it is hard when you do not want to be so obvious. More often than not in these situations I find myself creating a story for the other person in my head. Like they are single and looking for a partner, or they have been recently broken up with and are sulking. It is always an interesting and confusing thought, to go up to them, not to go up to them. 

The way the narrator is asking himself questions, to strike up a conversation, to taste her wine, while tasting a strangers wine to me seems fairly aggressive, I find it to be so normal and common to have so many questions and wonder so much about other people in these situations. Are they nice, do they want you to start a conversation, do they want to be left alone? Do they want to start a conversation with you? You really can never tell. 

However, the narrator in my eyes takes it a little too far. Without disturbing her, without directly engaging with her at all, he claims that love has become an idea in his head. That seems to be a little aggressive and forward for me. While love at first sight I think is totally feasible, without even having a conversation I find it to be relatively unrealistic, and that seems to be the situation that the narrator has created in his head. 

Overall I think this poem says a lot to daily life. Of individuals going about their lives, and especially in today’s era, keeping their heads down, being somewhere alone but not even being alone because they’re on their phone and connecting with the rest of the world. The ability to have the world at our fingertips with today’s technology lessens the chance of any spontaneity, like that in this poem.