'The Yellow Palm'Robert Minhinnick

Robert Minhinnick is a Welsh poet and author, born in Neath in 1952. He studied at the University of Wales, and has won numerous awards for both his poetry and novels. He helped to establish two Welsh environmental charities and is an environmental campaigner.

You should compare this poem with other poems about the same themes: causes of conflict: 'Hawk

Roosting’, 'next to of course god america i’;

division: 'The Right Word’, 'At the Border, 1979'.

Much of Minhinnick’s poetry is rooted in Wales – its landscapes and communities, people, places and weather,

his family and his childhood. It is not limited to this, however. He has travelled widely and written on other subjects, including contemporary political events and

issues. Poems such as ‘The Yellow Palm’ and ‘After the Stealth Bomber’ reference the first Gulf War and draw on

his visit to Iraq in 1998. Minhinnick won the prestigious Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem in 1999 for

'Twenty-five Laments for Iraq’.

In a recent interview, Minhinnick said that he does not intend his poems to have a moral message: ‘I

have a moral standpoint on many aspects of life, but I wouldn't wish it to intrude too obviously in my

poems, because I simply don't see myself as some kind of moral arbiter.’ The poet explains that he tries in his poems to combine drama, colour and texture.

The drama and ‘colour’ is in the narrative and the images. He says, ‘I think in images and I like to write

in images. That's what writing is all about – the transforming image that provides even

commonplace things with another dimension.’ He goes on to explain that ‘texture’ refers to the unique

way a writer uses language – vocabulary, syntax, patterning and emphasis.

The refrain of ‘The Yellow Palm’ refers to Palestine Street, but Minhinnick has identified the inspiration for the poem as a different street in Baghdad called Al-Rasheed Street, a major thoroughfare in the city and the location of the Al-

Rasheed Hotel, from where CNN broadcast live during the air strikes on the city during the first Gulf War. Minhinnick

describes the poem as ‘an Audenesque kind of ballad’.

The Yellow Palm

As I made my way down Palestine StreetI watched a funeral pass –all the women waving lilac stemsaround a coffin made of glassand the face of the man who lay withinwho had breathed a poison gas. As I made my way down Palestine StreetI heard the call to prayerand I stopped at the door of the golden mosqueto watch the faithful therebut there was blood on the walls and the muezzin’s eyeswere wild with his despair. As I made my way down Palestine StreetI met two blind beggarsAnd into their hands I pressed my handswith a hundred black dinars;and their salutes were those of the Imperial Guard in the Mother of all Wars. As I made my way down Palestine StreetI smelled the wide Tigris,the river smell that lifts the airin a city such as this;but down on my head fell the barbarian sunthat knows no armistice. As I made my way down Palestine StreetI saw a Cruise missile,a slow and silver caravanon its slow and silver mile,and a beggar child turned up his faceand blessed it with a smile. As I made my way down Palestine Streetunder the yellow palmsI saw their branches hung with yellow datesall sweeter than salaams,and when that same child reached up to touch,the fruit fell in his arms.

As I made my way down Palestine Street

I watched a funeral pass –

all the women waving lilac stems

around a coffin made of glass

and the face of the man who lay within

who had breathed a poison gas.

As I made my way down Palestine Street

I heard the call to prayer

and I stopped at the door of the golden mosque

to watch the faithful there

but there was blood on the walls and the muezzin’s eyes

were wild with his despair.

‘Palestine Street’ is a major street in Baghdad (although not the street that

Minhinnick identifies as the inspiration for his poem), also known as Falastin Street. The poem describes what the narrator sees as he walks along a main street in Baghdad. Some of the scenes the narrator sees as he walks along the street are violent or distressing,

while others are peaceful and positive.

The Muezzin a person who calls the faithful to

prayer at mosque.

Repetition of this phrase makes him

sound slightly separate from

everything going on in

the street as if he is just an

observer and not actually

involved. Repeating the same first line in each stanza

emphasises the narrator's

movement along the

street using the personal pronoun ‘I’.

There is a range of first person verbs that shows the narrator

using all his senses (what he sees, (‘watched’) hears, (’heard’)

touches, (‘pressed’), and smells (‘smelled’) which makes the street

feel real and vibrant.

There is a lot of strong imagery and description in the poem. The range of colours makes the

description vivid and suggests natural beauty as a background for human violence and distress. The

narrator sounds detached, as though he's presenting us with evidence and letting us draw

our own conclusions.

The ‘poison gas’ is a term to describe chemical weapons such as mustard

gas and chlorine gas. Poison gas was used by Iraq against Iran during the Iran–Iraq War and also (allegedly)

against its own Kurdish minority. The UN supervised the destruction of a

quantity of chemical weapons in Iraq after the first Gulf War.

As I made my way down Palestine Street

I met two blind beggars

And into their hands I pressed my hands

with a hundred black dinars;

and their salutes were those of the Imperial Guard in the Mother of all Wars.

As I made my way down Palestine Street

I smelled the wide Tigris,

the river smell that lifts the air

in a city such as this;

but down on my head fell the barbarian sun

that knows no armistice.

The poem is a first person ballad.

The 2nd, 4th and last lines in each

stanza rhyme. Extending the rhyme lets the

last two lines act as a kind of

comment on the previous

description. They introduce extra

details that challenge or

contradict the images in the previous four

lines. Each stanza is linked to the next through

small associations. This emphasises the idea of a long street full of different but

connected things.

The Imperial Guard are the unit of volunteers (largely) who originally served as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s personal

bodyguard. The unit’s remit broadened into a wider military one.

‘Mother of all Wars’ (or Mother of all Battles) is President

Saddam Hussein’s description of the first Gulf War.

The Tigris is the river flowing through

Baghdad.An armistice is a situation in a war where the conflciting

parties agree to stop fighting even if it is only

temporary.

The word ‘barbarian’ refers to a brutal and merciless killer.

Minhinnick personifies the sun as ruthless and suggests even nature

can be in conflict.

As I made my way down Palestine Street

I saw a Cruise missile,

a slow and silver caravan

on its slow and silver mile,

and a beggar child turned up his face

and blessed it with a smile.

As I made my way down Palestine Street

under the yellow palms

I saw their branches hung with yellow dates

all sweeter than salaams,

and when that same child reached up to touch,

the fruit fell in his arms.

The narrator implies his views by observing and

leaving the reader to make connections between what

he sees and moral and political ideas. The poem

implies human activity seems aggressive and

damaging compared to nature. The narrator finds contradictions between

the innocence and beauty of some of the things he

sees and the violence and pain that human society

has caused. The poet juxtaposes the image of the innocent child the

cruise missile to engage with the reader.

A cruise missile is a guided missile that can carry

conventional, chemical, biological or nuclear warheads.

Cruise missiles were used by both ‘sides’ during the first Gulf

War.

The ‘yellow palm’ refers to a type of date-

producing palm tree that is frequently mentioned in the Qu’ran. The tree’s leaves, bark and fruit are

used for a variety of purposes including

timber, rope, food and fuel.

‘Salaam’ is an Arabic greeting (meaning ‘peace’) which is used throughout the world, mainly by Muslims. In the Middle East, it

is accompanied by two or three light cheek kisses, usually between people of the same gender. It is a shortening of As

Salaam Alaykum (peace be upon you).