Really excellent purpose for creating this compilation, but the poems were a bit repetitive. Overall I’m really glad it exists but could have used more editing.

‘We Were Seeds’ is a collection of poetry and art protesting the genocide of the Palestinians and the horrors faced daily by Gazans in the times we’re living in. This book is a gathering of voices - of poets, artists, and human beings - determined to keep humanity alive, despite so much lived experience of collective failure. Most importantly, proceeds from this book go to supporting Gazans, a people who ceaselessly strive for life. At the time of this review, two of this collection’s Palestinian contributors are displaced and links to provide mutual aid can be found on Querencia Press’ website.

“Poetry soars above silence, poetry shatters ignorance, poetry flies into the space that is hope and light.” - from the Afterword

What I found most powerful about this collection is the gathering of poets and artists from various parts of the world. Historically, it has taken fervent, disciplined global solidarity and action for us to stand a chance at halting atrocities we know should have never happened in the first place. Capitalistic and colonial greed expect us to look away, to forget, and in doing so, they allow violent cycles to repeat themselves. It is us, civilians and especially the more marginalized of us, who pay the highest price.

Here are people who are sharpening their voices against harm, who believe something else is possible, who are fighting in their own ways, for violent cycles to break. In not looking away from difficult realities, hope and light get their chance at survival. The bridging of voices in solidarity with Palestine here turns into direct action with proceeds going to fundraisers. Here is life, resisting erasure.

The poetry and art in this collection are fierce, soft, powerful, devastating, and serve to keep our most vulnerable memories alive within wider collectives. They don’t offer catharsis - after all, the catastrophes have yet to ease up - but they do offer space for empathy, grief, and rage to be felt, seen, heard, and gathered. A crucial read for those who believe in the better, braver aspects of humanity.

Thank you to NetGalley and Querencia Press for making this eARC available for reviewing. Please check the Storygraph entry for content notices and trigger warnings.

I hate that this is a poetry collection that must exist but I love that it does exist. So many of the poets put into words exactly how it has felt watching the genocide of the Palestinian people through a screen and the callousness of the billions of people who see it and simply do not care or even worse, cheer it on.

Thank you to NetGalley and Querencia press for providing an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

'Genocide starts with playing God'

We were seeds is an anthology of 60+ poems and prose from a range of authors across the world with one purpose in mind - helping and benefitting the victims of the genocide in Palestine.

To call this an anthology a difficult read would be an understatement. I started crying on the first page and don't think I stopped.Through their work these authors show the reader a mere glimpse into the unspeakable horrors of everyday life of the people in Palestine. Through their fear, death, pain and loss. From the innocent children who had to grow up too fast, to the pregnant woman terrified of bringing a child into this world, to the babe born into a world that is too loud; bombs dropping all around them.

'Isn't nature so wonderfully cruel
To turn dysfunction into survival?'

Two poems that stuck out to me the most in this collection are 'A native watching Gaza' by Savannah Jade and 'Audience' by Devon Webb. Both challenge the western, and frankly white, perspective of watching history repeat itself again and again. Why do we condemn the past and call those atrocities yet stay ignorant to the same thing happening in our present? These and many others implore the reader to advocate for a free Palestine and not turn a blind eye until their freedoms are met.

'I ask you friends, please don't avert your eyes
Heed what ancient olive trees feel and see
And pray for the means to salve the wounds, the cries'

Hearing Palestinian voices as they fight for liberation is extremely important. We cannot turn a blind eye to the atrocities. All proceeds of this anthology on release will aid charities helping Palestine.