Despite being an atheist I still enjoy and feel it is right for us to celebrate Christmas. Anything which promotes goodwill and peace on earth gets my vote however naive I fear it may be. At the very least it does make people think, however briefly, or even cynically, about what might be. It is also an opportunity to reflect on how lucky some of us are.

We should, however, also think of those who, at this time, whether they be Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, any faith or no faith, live in fear or terror or want or all thee.

As a meditation on this I recommend a book of poems by the Palestinian poet, Mosab Abu Toha, “Forest of Noise”. Although it is focussed on Gaza, I think it makes real, in some sense, the human fears and feelings of all those existing in war zones.

As time goes by, the daily terror that people face in Ukraine, Palestine, Afghanistan the Sudan and countless other places begins to loose it’s ability to move us.

Continuity, transforms deaths into statistics, distance gives comfort and security. Moral outrage fades as numbers numb our minds.

It is this,which makes front-line poetry so important and so powerful. Reports that Gaza is being bombed begin to lose their meaning. Indeed, for those who have never experienced it, it is difficult to really appreciate what it means.

Mosab’s poems take you into homes where families sit with their backs against walls as they listen to the sounds of bombs making the whole house shake. He makes real the silent fear between blasts and the tiny acts of kindness which provide some sense of humanity and hope.

I recommend the poems as a way of getting beyond the inoculating statistics and tasting the immanent fear of loss. Even though it is continuous, when your neighbours ,or members of your family, are obliterated in an instant, I guess it is difficult to become inured. Inured to an existence of random but frequent death.

Celebrating a call for peace on earth is a good thing. However, being conscious of your good fortune is also important. The harsh reality of other’s lives should make the calls for peace on earth something that is not just for Christmas.