Content warning: the poem “Animals” (third in the episode) contains graphic depictions of violence towards animals.
Today being the last Friday in Lent before Holy Week (the actual last Friday in Lent is “Good Friday,” an even more somber observation of the Lenten spirit, categorically different than the regularly somber Fridays of the season) and I am thinking about fasting. I am also thinking about the Holy Month of Ramadan, which recently ended for my friends and family who celebrate, and fast in a similar manner to us Catholics during Lent. There’s something poetic about fasting, about withholding, about finding meaning in the sensation of urging, of desire, of craving. A great way to find god, or if not god, ourselves on a more pure journey to finding god.
I miss living near Dearborn and the very public celebrations of Ramadan, I miss the food, of course, the tremendous iftar spreads, but even more than the bounty of sustenance, the bounty of company, conversation, companionship. A shared poetry of the body and spirit.
Today’s poems are all by poets of Arab descent, Kazim Ali, Kaveh Akbar, and Hayan Charara, two of them - “Ramadan” and “Despite My Efforts Even My Prayers Have Turned into Threats” are explicitly about fasting and prayerfulness, the third, “Animals,” observes the kind of violence we might better avoid were we more attuned to our spirits, perhaps.
As Lent wraps up I’m left to wonder, in my own craving, what I can do to better serve myself, my family and friends, those around me, and those not around me. It might be naive to say ‘poetry is the answer,’ surely, it isn’t. But spirit - clear, pure, unobstructed spirit - that might be getting on to something.
