Poem of hope written at dawn
A HEARTFELT and hopeful poem written as dawn broke during lockdown by a member of the Grenfell community has struck a chord for people facing the challenges of social distancing.
Author Nour-eddine Aboudihaj is busy helping the community in north Kensington collect and deliver food to those in need during the current coronavirus crisis.
His poignant poem highlights the positive message that the crisis is bringing humanity together and giving us a chance to rediscover the most important things in life.
Of course he’s no stranger to tough times. Earlier this year he attended the Grenfell Inquiry to hear more evidence about the reasons for the disaster which claimed the lives of 72 people before the public hearings were put on hold because of the health crisis.
Nour also set up the Grenfell Trust to help support people affected by the disaster in 2017 and he also read out testimonials at the Inquiry on behalf of a friend who lost many members of his family.
He said he has not written poetry for many years but sat down at dawn “in the early hours of the morning. I used to write poems when I was younger but I just thought this is the moment, where people have to go back to different way of life.”
The poem ‘Can You See The Light’ describes how frightened people initially responded to the crisis.
Channel 4 News presenter Jon
Snow described Nour’s work as “a poem for our times” and Orchid Bea tweeted that the poem “evokes so many different emotions: caring, hope, anguish - but most of all love of planet and people - an empowering piece!”.
In the poem Nour said the virus has made people re-evaluate their values and look after each other.
The poem has been published on the website of the Al-Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre in North Kensington.
Kamitan Arts is working with Nour to record a reading of the poem to share with people remotely.
Nour studied literature at university and has been inspired by Shakespeare throughout his life.
He works as a life coach as well as volunteering in the community and wrote about his life lessons in his book The Straight Path to Success: from the fire of London Grenfell Tower back to the Waters of Casablanca Beach, which was published last year.
He said the coronavirus pandemic has really put the important things in life under the spotlight. “What’s important is that we learn from adversity so that we can come back with a better resilience. What’s happening is a lesson - the same with Grenfell.
“There’s a parallel between the good things and also some of the less good things. People have acknowledged that we have lost our way and have to look at our way of doing things.”
Because of measures to prevent the spread of the virus people can’t hug, or touch to support each other.
Nour said these kind of gestures have been very important with the North Kensington community in the days and years after Grenfell.
“We can’t be close to each other right now.”
However the lessons of kindness learnt after Grenfell and during the pandemic should be enduring, said Nour. “I believe that we will have a paradigm shift.”
He said people need to make sure they hold onto the important things in life including community and kindness and value them, rather than the “wrong assumptions” such as competitiveness.
Instead he suggested that the lessons could mean that. “Our bright future is our in compassionate togetherness.”
The full text of the poem can be read right.