269. the beautiful ones have changed to light.

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*LIVE RECORDING. I wrote and delivered this poem, The Beautiful Ones Have Changed to Light, in honor of the martyred poets and writers of Gaza and Falesteen as part of the first ever Los Angeles reading of The Gaza Monologues, on January 19, 2024. Our gathering was organized by the precious Sonali Fiske @sonalifiske (IG) with the blessing of Ashtar Theatre @ashtartheatre (IG) in Ramallah and in response to their global artistic solidarity call. We gathered to pay our respects, bear witness, send collective Love and prayer, and recite the heart-piercing monologues written by young souls in Gaza.

To birth this prayer-poem posted here, I soul-studied each of the named martyrs (among so many unnamed here) and, for each of them, wrote passages specifically in their honor. My prayer is that these personalized passages intuitively reflect aspects of their singular lives, work, passions, personalities, prayers, and dreams, including phrases here that are inspired by and evocative of their own written work.

On Jan. 28, I posted on IG an unofficial phone recording of me reciting this poem. You may find it on my page. The official video of our overall monologue reading will be shared by Sonali and others in the days to come.

For a written copy of this poem, please email jaiya@soulwater.org.

Please feel free to share and post this poem with proper crediting far and wide, especially within the diaspora Fal*steeni and Levantine communities. May our Love reach them and be solace, salve, and balm in the human breeze.

All of my books are available at jaiyajohn.com (thank you for purchasing directly from the author) and at booksellers worldwide. Audiobooks, eBooks, book specials, sleep stories, audio talks, apparel, piano music, and details for The Gathering, my poetry reading wold tour, are exclusively at my website. Thank you for posting your copies and readings of my books, and your creative images and videos with my overlayed verses, tagging #jaiyajohn, encouraging others to purchase, and sharing online book reviews. My whole heart cries Grateful. jaiyajohn.com...  

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