'The Prison Cell' Teaching Idea

Winter 2008/2009

As Mahmoud Darwish portrays in his poem, as long as our minds are free, human-made prisons cannot contain our imaginations. After reading the poem with students, ask, "What imprisons you? Think metaphorically. For example, growing up, poverty imprisoned me. Sometimes, school imprisoned me. Other people's ideas about women's role in society imprisoned me. Create a list of the ways you have been imprisoned."

Share and discuss students' lists. "Now create a second list: things you love. Darwish brings his land to the prison: the Nile River, trees, music. What do you bring to your prison that helps you escape, that feeds your soul? Notice how specific Darwish is. He names the river, the orchards. He tells us where the wine is from. Get specific. Does your joy come from singing in the Maranatha Church on Sundays? From smelling your grandmother's sweet potato pie?" After students have listed, ask them to share and add to their lists.

Darwish begins with the line: "It is possible":

It is possible for [what to disappear? school walls? prejudices against women?]

For the cell to become [what is your dream place: a library? your neighborhood?]

For example:

It is possible for your contempt for my language to disappear.

For the cell to become a room

Where my ancestors' voices can sing again.

Ask students to write a first stanza using Darwish's frame as a model. Ask a few students to share to give others ideas.

Then Darwish moves into conversation with his jailer. Help students notice the question-answer between the poet and the jailer.

Encourage students to begin a dialogue between the oppressor and the liberated as Darwish does.

For example:

What did you do with the rules we created for you?

I gave them back to your books that made me small.

Where did voices come from?

I freed them from the shame that made their voices fade.

Darwish's poem should provide a model, not a prison cell as students write their own. The intent is to get at the richness that emerges when students begin to name the invisible forces that imprison them.

— Linda Christensen

Winter 2008/2009