Poetry is a written form that through eloquence and wordmanship engages the senses to produce a vivid experience and stir emotions that differ from reading straight-on prose. As such, poetry can be a powerful method to speak truth to power and evoke consciousness that fillips protest and resistance in opposition to horrific crimes and in support of social justice and peace.

Buff Whitman-Bradley has compiled a collection of his poems, Broken Stars: Gaza Poems (Fomite Press, 2025) that is sure to raise consciousness and pull on readers’ heart strings

Genocide is the evilest human crime, one that demanded a convention against it after WWII. Whitman-Bradley brings the Jewish Israeli genocide against Palestinians to the forefront in several ways. And it is a genocide committed by Israelis, as the author makes clear in the headline he uses in a poem: “Poll: 82% of Israelis want to expel Palestinians from Gaza; 47% want to kill every man, woman, and child.”

Statistics aside, Whitman-Bradley exposes the insidiousness of genocide in far subtler and nuanced ways that adduce his poetic talent.

For instance, in “I could not help but think,” the author depicts the serene lifestyle of mom, dad, and their soccer-playing kids and contrasts this with Palestinian children living under bombs.

In “Gaza haikus,” Whitman-Bradley explores changes wrought by love among Palestinian family members under a genocidal onslaught.

Discussed in other poems are bombing, destruction, and rubble piercing consciousness; resurrecting dead Gazan children; making sense of what some humans are and the horrors some humans are capable of inflicting on others.

In “Vocabularies of outrage,” the poet laments:

Do we need new words, urgent words, ferocious words
To convey the profound evil
That is occurring in Gaza?

So many questions are raised. And what about the survivors? What about hearing the sounds of a genocide 7000 miles away? What goes through the mind of a sniper? What is the soul of a killer?

In the poem “After a good long rest,” how, after all the killing, does the Israeli fighter bring himself to resume

His slaughter of innocents
His massacre of children
His rape and murder of women.

In “Invasive species,” Whitman-Bradley asks:

What sort of creatures are these
Who gleefully pump bullets
Into the brains and bodies of infants and toddlers?

Further questions are answered through poetic evocations. What about the Israeli-imposed starvation of Palestinians? What is the response of the world?

Israel is not alone in inflicting horrors on Palestinians. The author notes a US Congress devoid of compassion for the death and destruction in Gaza. After all, cynically, it opens a real estate opportunity.

“Blasted Acres” assures Israelis that

They will not have to have to carry out
The grueling and messy work
Of total extermination,
That they can count on
the massive resources of their US collaborators

Broken Stars is an excellent read and reread that navigates the vicissitudes of feelings and what are harsh realities. The harshest reality is that some humans seek to dehumanize and destroy other humans; yet in turning upon other humans the blowback is that the genocidaires dehumanize themselves.

There is an obvious and undeniable fact that we are all humans. As such, morality demands we must all be imbued with equal rights to live in peace and share the earth’s bounty. Broken Stars imparts this morality.

The post Poems in Opposition to Genocide first appeared on Dissident Voice.

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