As part of my Islamic Studies certificate, in the Spring 2025 term I took a Graduate Theological Union (GTU) class called, “Literary Analysis of Islamic and Jewish Texts.” I was fascinated by the ancient Islamic literature we studied, particularly Attar‘s biography of the famous Sufi woman Rabi’a (also called Rabia Basri and Rābiʼa al-ʼAdawiyya al-Qaysiyya, 716-801 CE) in his Memorial of the Friends of God; however, I saw such a strong connection between battlefield soldiers like the modern Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai and incarcerated people that I chose that as my topic. Here is my paper.
Battlefield soldiers and incarcerated people are both groups who may find suspicion and watchfulness of their surroundings help them to survive in a fast-changing and dangerous world. In the paper I included three feedback quotes from men in reentry or who are still incarcerated about my Transforming Literature of the Bible class and its use of poetry. I gave a copy of the paper to the Elmwood Jail class this week and am curious to hear what they think. Here are the quotes,
“Poetry has helped me to express myself in a unique way. When I try to do poetry by sitting down and thinking about it, I think it is not as authentic as a spontaneous one. For example if I’m laying in bed and I’m thinking about something I jump out of bed and just start writing. Those are the best poems I have written.”
“I read lots of poetry in the class. Every poetry that I read had positive stories that taught me to be a better person even when I was in jail. It taught me to be strong in my faith and that everything is possible when you have faith to follow. No matter what we go through, everything is going to be OK.”
“The Brilliant poetry that is introduced to us in relation to the topics of study, are everything from heart felt amazement, shockingly heroic, Educationally sound, & a way to give multiple perspectives & ways of understanding. Artist & Poets…Bring understanding and awe, I’ve called home at times in excitement.”
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