#NANOWRIMO WRITING PROMPTS IN NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2023 TO SUPPORT CHILDREN IN GAZA
For the last month or so and the duration of #NaNoWriMo, MODRON has been posting a writing prompt every day to support medical aid for children and their families in Gaza. We were so moved by how many writers came out for this campaign which you can read more about here. A month has passed since this campaign began, and it is still the case, as UNICEF reports, that “hundreds of thousands of children and families are caught in a catastrophic situation”. According to the World Health Organization, one child is killed in Gaza every 10 minutes. Although some of the child hostages have been returned, others have been killed in the conflict. UNICEF has called for “children held hostage in Gaza [to] be immediately reunited with their families and loved ones”.
There is still time to donate. Despite a temporary pause in the conflict, the attacks on Gaza have been renewed with civilians, especially children becoming collateral damage. UNICEF spokesman James Elder explains: “Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It’s a living hell for everyone else.” The United Nations is often characterized as a cautious organisation, so when the UN talks of a potential genocide happening in front of us, it needs to be taken seriously. We are thankful to all those who made donations and to all the writers involved. We cannot stop however, but must continue, because for children and their families in Gaza, the suffering is ongoing. In that spirit, the writer Robert Walton has provided an extra writing prompt here, and we will continue to write and talk about what is happening in Gaza while the violence continues.
ROBERT WALTON
Empathy for the Child
In the Introduction to The Songs of Innocence (1789), William Blake wrote:
“On a cloud I saw a child.
And he laughing said to me.
Pipe a song about a Lamb.”
What does a child dream of? What does a child in a war-torn land dream of? It’s often said that poets, creative artists should try to capture their inner child. While we need, perhaps, to avoid sentimentalising or universalising our view of childhood, it’s possible that our “inner child” can imagine something of what a child in Palestine might dream of, whether daydreaming or in sleep:
- a child in southern Gaza outside the tent that has been provided for their family, or at night, inside the tent;
- a child whose family has chosen to remain in Gaza City;
- a child on the West Bank who has cousins, uncles, aunts or grandparents in Gaza;
- a child in a conflict zone in another part of the world.
The poetic challenge is to find the language and the form for this vision that your inner child conjures from its cloud.
Please consider donating to a charity providing medical aid in Gaza. We recommend UNICEF’s Appeal for Children in Gaza, but other charities include:
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