Aba Roc
Poem by Sandshoe
Dear O
Dear O
my man is a Bedouin
without home
without hope
and the caravanserai
is wallerahing
among the oases.
Wallah, Wallah, Aba Roc
Allah, Wallah, Aba Roc
Wilson 87
Author’s note: I scrawled Aba Roc on no foundation other than reflection on original Arabic culture insofar as less and less as I understood it Bedouin lived free of compromise that meant they lived in urban settings and their existence was made complex by contemporary market stresses particularly, themselves frequently inclusive at the centre of power mongering and side-lined, depending on class and gender, geographical location, situation in hierarchies, victims as well as perpetrators.
Now the success or otherwise of the Arab Spring as we generally refer to it is centre piece.
We quantify the losses now in deaths amounting to tens, hundreds of thousands of citizens and military personnel. The situation remains heartbreaking for the women and the men of the Bedouin.
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
Hi, ‘Shoe… so far, after doing a search for the word ‘bedouin’, all I’ve managed to discover is a band called ‘Bedouin Soundclash’; perhaps their music gives some clues as to how they feel about the current plight of their traditional culture?
You may have to copy and paste this link into your browser for it to work, ’cause that’s where I got it from… the ‘share’ button didn’t work and it seems they are concerned about people downloading their album…
🙂
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Such a lovely treat, asty, your thoughful gesture of doing a search and finding something to share that is presented so well in every respect is very much appreciated. It had reminiscence in it of ska to my ear and Wikipedia tells me so. You shine and rock too. Thatnk you for the knowledge of the Bedouin Soundclash.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedouin_Soundclash
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I’m as intrigued to hear them as you are ‘Shoe… my pleasure!
🙂
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Yep! Definitely a ‘Ska’ rhythm! (Just wait… now Algae’ll come’n correct me…! But it sounds like ‘Ska’ to me anyway!)
😉
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I notice the chorus line ‘I will be home’… ‘Home’ would seem to be a very important concept to those in a diaspora… I, for one, find it an intriguing concept, but wouldn’t know where to begin to look for a place I could really call ‘home’…
“I was born by the river!
Just like that river, I been moving ever since!
Ain’t got nobody to call my own…
Y’know I been movin’ since the day I was born!
Life is a game!
It’s just made for fun!
Don’t need nobody, you know I
Don’t luv no-one…
‘Cause I’m a mover baby!”
[from Free’s ‘Tons of Sobs’ album; ‘I’m a Mover’]
Bet these guys feel a lot that way too!
😉
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Here ya go!
You’re gonna LURVE it!
🙂
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It fits. This music fits perfectly. Like a glove. Thank you Asty.
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Thumbs up. Perfect. 🙂
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Those lyrics complete are…
I was born by the river, just like this river,
I’ve been moving ever since
Ain’t got no body to call my own you know
I’ve been moving since the day I was born
Life is a game just made for fun, I don’t need no body
No, I don’t love no one
Yes, I’m a mover baby
Now get out of my way will ya?
Don’t try to stop me now
Following the footpath one fine day,
When I asked a wise man which was the way,
He said “follow you heart and look for yourself,
And come back and tell me what you have learned”.
Yes, I’m a mover.
Went back and told him I’d found me a wife,
Eleven children and a real good life,
Told him I’d left this happy home,
’cause I need to return to the long winding road
Yes, I’m a mover
FRASER/RODGERS of Free
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_(band)
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Thanks shoe I’ll have to think about that when I have time
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Thank you, algernon.
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‘Shoe, not for the first time am I in admiration for your work. Boy, you got onto this issue well in front of the pack ! And 25 years before I started to play with misspellings, mispronunciations and tramspositions. Master class in driving focus on the few words and reflection on their universe.
And then I started to ponder aspects of having a pile, flogging oneself to pay the mortgage in pointless jobs where the work is unappreciated by dropkick bullies and psychopaths – and living next to people who would need an upgrade to be considered Neanderthals. In fact they would give troglodytes a bad name.
Maybe the loss of Bedouin worlds is just temporary. Imagine post-apocalyptic wandering through the burnt out deserts of modern megalopolises… back to the social unit we are genetically supposed to live in best – namely the tribe – say up to 40 families linked by kinship and collaboration – as opposed to being subject to the whims of the major industrial military complexes – where companies are bigger and more powerful than our nation states. Witness the global miners kicking the governments around whenever they want.
But it’s a hard life, isn’t it. And not for the faint-hearted and soft. And brutal too. Maybe as much physically brutal as western society is psychologically brutal.
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Well I am not sure how all the unrest in the arab part of this world affects the Bedouin in any precise way. What I do know is that people living the the Iranian countryside are pretty darn fabulous and hospitable, love their wine and food and culture. What we see in the ‘big cities’ seems to be a total rabble. The tribes don’t mix, they’re impatient and upset and easily angered by lack of action. But there seems to be no consensus. Yes, they wind up with despots running the show and they get ripped off. It is a mess. Been that way for a long time throughout the Middle East. Do they all need new countries, new borders for those with more in common. Do they know what they have in common? But I don’t spend my time worrying about them. There is a village up the road from where I live called Walla Walla – no worries there. There is another location ‘up the road’ from where I live called The Rock. (True) Theye all play AFL and cricket. Maybe what the Middle East needs is more team sports.
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Vivienne, I read your comment a number of times because I like reading your writing and I know that your experience of community is huge in the sense you have referred to working on boards of management I think you said and you have referred to editing as well. I got you way up there because I revere the skill it takes to work with people in these sorts of environments. I as equally revere the decisions that have to be made on the road of that participatory involvement. I read into what you have written another world of experience that is travel I am not familiar with; and I cannot believe it, as well, you have a village nearby called Walla Walla. Isn’t that a-bloomin-mazing. Now, if the Middle East speaking generally did need more team sports, I was thinking I saw a programnme about the kids of refugees learning AFL or something and if only we all had opportunity whatever it is that is needed. I think housing always a first and a safe home and food and rest and physical activity that is healthy and wholesome.
Walla Walla. I might have had that name buried away in my head because I have been through the region that I think is where you live and maybe it is simply evidence of the commonalty of words and language. It is all magic to me. I do not know about any of the rest of your experience. I went one lovely evening to a celebration of the Iranian New Year in New Zealand and did met some Iranian women and men through my visit to Baxter Detention Centre.
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Viv, our friend Jeff (Balmain) invited us to go with him to his childhood home in Wagga Wagga, we had the best weekend going to nice restaurants etc, he also took to us to a place called the Rock, they had some country fair happening there at the time; the would be beauty queens of The Rock paraded at the back of the truck, very sweet, we had some beers and climbed the The Rock, on the hot day after the beers, rather exhausting….
Is is this rock you are talking about? Top weekend.
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I found this H. I like the country that reminds me of the valley where my grandparents were and it was a mixture of quartz and precious metals and tin.
http://wagga.nsw.gov.au/art-gallery/exhibitions/exhibition-archive/exhibitions-2007/the-rock-hill
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So interesting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walla_Walla,_New_South_Wales
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Well put Emm, clap clap. (Standing)
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Emmjay, I have been intending to get back to your comment in this respect of writing, in the first instance, thank you and in the second to comment that I was really surprised when I started in retrospect to look around me and do a bit of study in writing which was really in the footsteps in some cases of writers in the group I was facilitator of 10 years after this event, and as well just hanging out in the more recent experience of looking at contemporary art work. In one viewing of a young woman’s art work I wondered if she had been a visitor where I had lived once and she had taken an attachment to my wall art that I presented as a newspaper. Whether she did or no, I don’t mean that as a criticism but rather that, sometimes we ‘cotton on’ to a movement or a style of representation that is itself a product of the social circumstances we collectively find ourselves in. I think that is fascinating in itself. I think Lehan is a leader with paint and pen both. She plasters paint into almost sculptural form it so grabs my imagination., that challenge of saying something that is natural and has essence. I am glad on another hand I have ‘come out’ in the retrospect of working fairly isolated when I started and ‘wet’ behind the ears. I kind of formed without a perverse idea of where I was going, and arrived here by a sort of accident. I love that. Not to discredit young people’s paths to art through formal study, to the contrary, it was only that I formed some, in some cases retrogressive, ideas about how to establish a sense in my writing and artwork of originality.
I reckon the lessons I accrued to me by running a bit loose worked out well for me in this sense that I felt I could be child like thinking through writing tasks. I thought I was inventing stuff. We do anyway and don’t realise someone somewhere else is simultaneously thinking around about the same time of the same methodology or process. Thank you again. I meant to say that when I started to look around me I got quite a surprise to see, b y contrast in some environments, I had some sound ideas, I thought I had developed and then sought artists to talk about them with. I felt like a child earnestly talking about my ideas and for all I knew it could be finger painting. I was in kindergarten in my early 40s I felt, I felt so childlike and enthusiastic. 🙂
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If only I was into poetry I’d be able to make a sensible comment. I’m not so I can’t.
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Same here, sadly prosaic, no understanding of anything that does not rhyme; i’m at Winnie the Pooh level of poetry.
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The sort of poetry is intended for the interest and the curiosity of people who will regard it as we do line drawings or blocks of abstract colour that are memorable, meditative, reminiscent, allusory or stimulate illusion, decorate our house or a tea towel. Poetry is not more than a short story in any language or a decal depending on our use for it. We uncover language or cause that is personal or we find partisan and political expression in the words and often the shape of its framework because people love patterns.
We know social status and hierachical codes out of the meaning of poetry.
I do always recall my experience of Kabuki theatre in Adelaide when I attended at a Festival about 1979 and it was so fabulous to watch the physical discipline of the actors and the stylised movements. People walked out and emptied the theatre so that I was very surprised.
I concur with Therese there is no right or wrong about a poem, although some poetic text is strident with meaning that can be interpreted in one clear light or another. However, away dull care to communicate as I was not asked about poetry.
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Hey Shoe, Viv and H et all,
Your writings really rocks, so… How about climbing in you pens and shove a few words here for an article?
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Hello Gez again
Thank you for saying our writing rocks. I do have articles ‘in’ for consideration and I have some waiting on that queue (in good time). I lost two hard drives simultaneously Gez, bit of bad luck so I have to re-gather research as I go and I lost updates to the serials as well, that’s a bit sad eh. The local computer shop says I cannot rescue those back no matter what he does.
On another hand be awful if we had only writers or if we all wrote all of the time. We wouldn’t have ANY readers. They know what they like and they don’t. It would be helpful we had more readers who let us know from time to time they are reading I thinkit.
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Viv and Helvi, be brave and just let the words stimulate your thoughts. I don’t think there is a right or wrong take on a poem. Exchange your thoughts without the fear that you might look silly – and show people that there are many ways to interpret art in its many forms and that your appreciation is as valid as any other. Relax and tell us what you see. Bring another unpolluted perspective to the table.
Kind regards, Emm.
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Thank you Sandshoe. Some interesting new words for me in this piece. I thought ‘oases’ was a typo for ‘oasis’. Of course I was wrong and delighted with the notion of ‘stuttering’ as a metaphor.
My background is Psychotherapy and recently returned from The Middle East (Qatar) after 3 wonderful years helping Weill-Cornell University develop Cross Cultural understanding in Medicine programme. I thought readers may be interested in an abstract below.
Abstract
Sixty Bedouin-Arab patients (36 females, 24 males) referred to the psychiatric clinic of the Soroka Medical Centre in the Negev, Israel were interviewed before they met with the psychiatrists and again two weeks later. An open-ended questionnaire was administered during three month period, to examine the patients’ explanations of their mental health symptoms. Findings revealed that all patients, male and female alike, perceived and explained their symptoms as being caused by supernatural powers. There were gender differences, however, regarding the perceived nature of, and behaviour of, these supernatural powers. Males explained their symptoms as caused by God’s will, whether directly through Him, or indirectly through evil-spirits. In both instances, human behaviour was not a primary concern. In contrast, 97% of the female patients explained their symptoms as a result of sorcery, a phenomenon which integrates human behaviour with supernatural powers. Cultural and language differences between the patients and psychiatrists were also found to cause miscommunications and inappropriate treatment, with the result that 50% of the sample terminated psychiatric treatment after two sessions.
May I ask your kind consideration to submit this splendid poem to an arts magazine at the university. You would receive credits obviously and from a cross cultural perspective show our Arab friends your very sensitive shared empathy.
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Taking immediate liberty, It has lept out at me out of the page your relationship with psychotherapy and I have read your comment dear Calypso with the scattery approach only we employ splashing around a bit too tired and likely in this case bit wrung out from an experience of sharing a valuable piece of creativity. I say valuable immediately because this piece I frankly cherish as one of my dearest friends as creative pieces become with their own character and we know them so well and so kindly, because they teach us so much we did not know and certainly we find ourselves through them. The pertinent experience behind the poem and original thought processing that inspired me to think of its construction have re-engaged me at this moment and all my fondest dreams. I am overwhelmed. I am crying like the smallest child. I feel so honoured.
Thank you, I will return and read and reply later in the day to your comment and enquiry when I have met some commitments and of course I will before I do that read all our piglets’ comments and do likewise so I honestly know I am on my feet. It has been a dedicated and o, so very lonely road. Bye for now, piglets all.
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Calypso regards language in the environment of health services – the subject area is a specific in current experience I am dealing with and I have a sophisticated and original understanding in this field that has occupied me for a long time having formed a view that an approach basically on grounds nobody know me would be an appropriate platform for me to understand language and its study for mental health practitioners. It has gotten complicated time to time. I am a walking dossier in this subject. What was there to know and how to output it to be effective has been occupying my attention in the face of near total ruin – and flying in the face of convention – challenging language.
I refer to that use of language and the meeting of client/consumer/patient and practitioner (equally first the front line receptionists’ desk) by putting my hands together , fingertips touching uplifted in the position of simple supplication (ie the prayer position) as ‘the inter-face of health’ and have since1991. It is an effective memory tool.
A circuit of personal experience led me to do a History and Politics degree in the History of Family and Medicine, Sociology of Power, and Social Philosophy, Contemporary Ideologies and I did 2 years of English literature regards my undergraduate degree, but I have been on the road really for a long time informally studying the mental health services from observation and attachment in community in various capacities as an activist. I faced an ironic realisation when I was writing last week that I feel entirely competent to accrue recognition and credit by application and/or through award assessment of my original writing as a creative writer.
This is an honour. I hope you are successful in your application. My ground of accepting your request is two-fold on one hand to provide its literature where others may feel comforted and to stimulate an appreciation of cross-cultural expression and meet critics . I submit my work equally for consideration of recognition and credits attached to its presentation. I can see quite clearly there is a sore need for a competent community practitioner who is a writer who can work with cross cultural clients as I have in community and recognition may assist me establish that eventual regard with staff. Thank you.
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Heartfelt appreciation Sandshoe. Your poem will be treated like a babe in arms. It will be carefully handled, only given to an ok person to rock. It will have your name too.
I am as excited as you are. 🙏
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Calypso, I publish as my full name other than at the pub (three names). 🙂
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Calypso, I have read the introduction to the magazine and I note its emphasis is on collaborative work. I am all for collaborative installations or equivalent in writing. I am pleased with that magazine look too btw. Thank you again.
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Dear Sandshoe
Your poem may well reside here. It is already being translated into Arabic.
http://culturestrike.net/the-bedouin-poem
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I am honoured.
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Reblogged this on rosiegray47.
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Well done Shoe: An interesting subject. I wonder what made you explore the Bedouin?
A Bedouin is generally referred to as being Arabic by birth and traditionally lived in groups or tribes in tents in deserts . (The word ‘tent’ originates from their language).while travelling around, herding groups of animals or transporting goods or people across the desert.. . It is a way of life. The Australian aborigine traditionally lived similarly except without herding animals. The modern world has ceased to be meaningful for the lives of Bedouins travelling around and endless warring factions within tribes and families and other factors seem to have destroyed their traditions. A pity.
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Thank you Gez. I am not eminently knowledgeable about the Bedouin. I felt personal reason many times to think about the welfare of the Arabs because of reflecting on the welfare of a young friend. I am as much reflecting on the curious nature of associations we make out of history and the formation of language. I had earlier read a book I found magical by Wilfred Thesiger ‘The Marsh Arabs’. I am sure you would enjoy that because it has a tale of camaraderie woven in it that I envied him his opportunities to know these people living their resourceful lives. I am bound for bed Gez. Thank you again.
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Interesting poem ‘Shoe; and thanks for bringing the plight of the Bedouins to my attention; I’ll have to do a little research on the topic; but it’ll have to wait ’til tomorrow; it’s too late tonight!
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Hey, great to hear from you Astyages. Thank you for the thumbs up. See you again soon. Sure, it’s late.
I hope it’s reasonably cool for you in that address where you live now and that the mossies aren’t biting. Sweet dreams.
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‘Shoe it’s a pleasant 27 degrees here in my lounge/music-room/office/study… partly on account of my new air-condish… LUUUXURY! Sheer LUUXURY!
And I haven’t seen a mozzie this year… touch wood!
‘Night-night!
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedouin
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Thanks for that starting point ‘Shoe… the Bedouin seem to have undergone something of a diaspora over the last century or so…
Their old way of life has effectively disappeared and they are now either more-or-less in rebellion against, at war with, or else assimilated into the mainstream culture of the numerous countries to which they have spread.
Although their lineages and kinship systems may persist, due to their robustness, even these will be weakened now that their traditional lifestyle has been, for the most part, replaced by that of the cities… City living will undermine their hierarchical system of personal loyalties by superimposing more immediate ‘loyalties’ on them…
I’ll have a look through YouTube tomorrow and see if I can’t find anything recent on them… maybe see how they’re adapting to their new situations… Watch this space!
NOW I think I’ll hit the hay!
‘Nighty-night (Again!)
🙂
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