December blog 2025:Two poems published in Butterflies in Gaza: A World Anthology of Poems on Peace.

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 December blog 2025:Two poems published in Butterflies in Gaza: A World Anthology of Poems on Peace.

I am pleased to share that I have two poems published in Butterflied in Gaza: A World Anthology of Poems for Peace, edited by Christopher Okema, 2025

 

Butterflies in Gaza: A World Anthology of Poems on Peace is a collection of poems written by poets from around the world, most of whom live outside the Israel-Palestine conflict zone. Published beyond the region's political and religious influences, the anthology brings out a broad poetic perspective of the tragedy. Contributors express emotions and ideas about the Gaza conflict, offering poetic reflections and humanitarian perspectives, raising moral questions and drawing attention to humanity's concerns for fellow human beings. This anthology is not a political platform, campaign, or newsletter-it is a work of art that evokes empathy, compassion, and awareness.

Through poetry, it honours the pain and suffering of those affected by the conflict: the dead, the bereaved, the displaced, and the innocent victims, especially children, women, and the vulnerable. At its core, Butterflies in Gaza: A World Anthology of Poems on Peace seeks to promote peace, understanding, and unity among people. It mourns the loss of life and acknowledges the grief of families and their loved ones. Above all, the collection seeks to inspire resilience, restore hope, and uphold human dignity for everyone trapped in the crossfire of war.

 

Rations and Death Served in Gaza

 

Sometimes the food is thrown at us.

We surge, zigzag in wavering lines,

bowls and containers in hands.

We plead and beg shamelessly

because we are hungry.

 

Sometimes food falls.

No, it isn’t “manna” from Heaven,

but our lifeline is dropped by parachutes

from a hovering helicopter.

 

We put our lives in harm’s way

and hope that fallen food

is not crushed crumbs we must scrape up

after it is squashed or pulverized on impact.

 

We, barely standing,

carry our starved, staggering bodies

and pray we do not die

in a trampling crowd.

 

We are already wearing too many shrouds.

Black is not our choice of clothing,

but we mourn those shot,

by those who cannot see

that we are God’s children, too.

 

A family can lose many members during a bombing.

Death meted out like daily bread is numbing.

We watch a son, a daughter, a mother or father

go out in search for food never to return.

A family loses a loved one

in the quest to stave off hunger.

 

We are stopped mid-flight,

shots taking our last breaths.

We are stopped

never to open our eyes again,

never to rise again.

 

© Althea Romeo Mark 2025

It Rains a Dusty Gray in Gaza

 

We mourn the passing of sunny days,

our sky no longer blue.

It rains dusty grey

as we flee under the umbrella

of the billowing clouds

roused by bombs,

and cannoning death.

 

Our homes now concrete slabs,

our shelter is the open sky

from which the stars

look down in tears,

after seeing and hearing

our crying fear.

 

© Althea Romeo Mark 2025

An added poem on the same topic that was not published in the above anthology.

Dustination

(We March From Dust to Dust)

 

There is rumbling in the air

though there is no threatening volcano.

There is a daily spewing of ashy anger,

and living is hazardous.

Grey and brown are

the colors of gloom we live with.

 

Dust veils our crushed city.

The clouds float in it.

It blots out the sun.

Dust is the umbrella we walk under.

 

It is not the Harmattan

browning and greying our sky,

roofs, clothes, hair, hands and feet.

 

It is not Mother Nature venting.

We can’t blame Her

for the crushing of our homeland.

 

Our annihilation is carried out

by religious fanatics who believe in

Biblical fairy tales and fables.

Their faith rooted in the belief they are chosen,

and they must manifest their destiny.

 

They see themselves as soldiers in God’s army

and must carry out orders

to annihilate those deemed their enemy.

 

And ash is fresh, always floating,

because God’s “anointed” are bombarding buildings,

the land, the living, everything past and present.

Is it death to all as they fulfill their call?

 

Death becomes us?

We defy death in daily living

though our numbers are diminished.

From this smothering dust and rubble, we shall rise.

 

© Althea Romeo Mark 2025

Althea Romeo-Mark, an educator and writer, was born in Antigua, West Indies, and grew up in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. She has lived and taught in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands,  Connecticut, Ohio, USA, Liberia (West Africa), London, England, and Switzerland since 1991. Althea Romeo Mark, who writes poetry, short stories and personal essays, is the author of two full-length poetry collections, The Nakedness of New and If Only the Dust Would Settle, (English-German), and four chapbooks, On the Borders of Belonging, Beyond Dreams: The Ritual Dancer, Two Faces, Two Phases, Palaver, and Shu-Shu Moko Jumbi: The Silent Dancing Spirit.

Awards and Prizes include The Vincent Cooper Literary Prize to a Caribbean author for exemplary writing in Caribbean Nation Language, 2023; Althea was nominated for the Eric Hoffer Book Award in 2024:  awarded the Arts and Science Poetry Prize for poems published in POEZY 21:Antologia Festivaluluiinternational Noptile De Poezie De Curtea De Arges, Curtea De Arges, Romania, 2017; awarded the Marguerite Cobb McKay Prize by the The Caribbean Writer in June, 2009 for her short story “Bitterleaf,” in Volume 22, and won Short story prize for “Easter Sunday,” Stauffacher English Short Story Competition/Switzerland 1995.