Bearing witness in three lines

At 67 years old, Rick Black turned from journalism to poetry. In last year’s Two Seasons in Israel: A Selection of Peace and War Haiku, the former New York Times correspondent uses haiku as his primary medium to highlight single moments in the ordinary lives of people caught up in the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict.

“I remember once being sent to the West Bank to cover a demonstration,” he told me in a recent conversation. “This was during the First Intifada. There was an angry clash between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers, like the clashes all over the West Bank. Leaving to go back to Jerusalem, I noticed that all the almond trees were in blossom,” Black reflected.

just buried soldier—
too soon for his mother
to notice the crocus