There is, here, a timeless present, and here no one can find anyone.
No one remembers how we went out the door like a gust of wind,
and at what hour we fell from yesterday, and then
yesterday shattered on the tiles
in shards for others to reassemble into mirrors
reflecting their image over ours.

There is, here, a placeless present.
Perhaps I can handle my life and cry out in the owl’s night:
Was this condemned man my father who burdens me with his history?
Perhaps I will be transformed within my name, and will choose
my mother’s words and way of life, exactly as they should be.
Thus, she could cajole me each time salt touched my blood,
and give me food each time a nightingale bit me in the mouth.

There is, here, a transient present.
Here, strangers hang their rifles on the olive’s branches,
to prepare their dinner in haste out of tin cans
and rush hurriedly to their trucks.

-Mahmoud Darwish, “The Owl’s Night”

From May to July 2007 Adam Beach traveled throughout the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel photographing various forms of nonviolent resistance against the occupation. Beach’s photos will be part of a documentary film project set to be released in the spring of 2008. He can be contacted at wagepeacebeach AT gmail DOT com.