Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Words That Heal”

In this activity, students will explore the long history of Palestinian poetry, connecting Ibtisam’s poetry in Tasting the Sky to a larger tradition of healing trauma through words.

Ibtisam weaves original, free verse poetry throughout the first and last sections of Tasting the Sky. Ibtisam, as we have learned, has a special relationship to the written word—in its ability to process her suffering, connect with others, and help her find herself. But Ibtisam’s relationship to the written word, and particularly poetry, is part of a larger tradition of Palestinian artists, authors, and thinkers who have also used writing to heal from the trauma.

In this activity, you will research the larger canon of Palestinian poetry. Through your research, you will dive deeper into the layered meanings of Ibtisam’s poetry in Tasting the Sky and the larger themes of the book:

• Research and Read. Begin by researching the wealth of Palestinian poetry available online and in your school and/or local library such as Mille’s “3 Palestinian Poems That’ll Reshape Your Understanding of Belonging” and The Los Angeles Review of Books’ “My Palestinian Poem that The New Yorker Wouldn’t Publish.”
• Analyze and Identify. Keeping in mind the core themes of Tasting the Sky, select a poem you find in your research that builds upon, amplifies, or otherwise extends the message of Ibtisam’s poetry in the book. Perform a line-by-line analysis of two poems—one poem from a Palestinian poet, and a second poem from Tasting the Sky. Identify common themes between the two poems.
• Compare and Contrast. Compare the two poems and the two poets. In your comparison, you may find it helpful to consider the following questions: Do the authors have similar backgrounds? If the author is a male, could that affect their experience of war when compared to Ibtisam? How does each poet deal with their trauma? Do either have a “resolution” or is it more open ended? How does Ibtisam’s poetry compare to more resistance-oriented poems?

When your research/analysis/comparison is complete, discuss your findings as a class. When sharing, it is recommended that students begin by reading aloud the poem by the Palestinian author of their choice, and then say in a sentence or two how that connected to Tasting the Sky in a way that was meaningful to them.

Teaching Suggestion: Students may benefit from receiving some guidance on how to analyze poetry. Washington State Arts Commission has this worksheet with a graphic organizer called a “poetry square.” A “poetry square” is a useful technique to help students visually unpack/analyze the meaning of a poem. As a class, you may want to complete one “poetry square” together as an example, perhaps for one of Ibtisam’s poems in Tasting the Sky. Furthermore, to kick off this activity, you could play this video for students—“Remembering Mahmoud Darwish” —an Arabic-language video with English-language subtitles from the Middle East Monitor. This video profiles Mahmoud Darwish, a man who many consider to be the preeminent Palestinian poet. Through the video, students will not only have the opportunity to learn more about Mahmoud Darwish himself, they will be immersed in Ibtisam’s language and the language of the Palestinian people.

The Baffler’s “Poems from Palestine: Lyric Dispatches” might offer additional poem choices.