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    The Sun InterviewBy Judith HertogTo RemainRaja Shehadeh on Living through Destruction in Palestine

    I have been thinking that people all over the world these days are feeling a sense of despair because, like me, they are seeing the destruction of the world as they knew it. But it has occurred to me that the real destruction of my world happened in 1948, when the Palestinians lost Palestine.

    Distractions
    Readers WriteBy Our ReadersDistractions

    Reading at work, listening to music during labor, swatting gnats while meditating

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John Hodgen

John Hodgen’s first job was as a part-time gravedigger after school at the Pine Grove Cemetery in Templeton, Massachusetts. He’s since been a teacher, written six books, and now serves as Writer-in-Residence at Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Poetry

The Lonesomest Sound in the World

When the kids came to school, we tortured them because they smelled and wore the same clothes every day, until they just shut down, not even looking at us after a while, never raising their hands, never saying a word.

November 2025
Poetry

My Father’s Hammer

After he died, my mother gave me his toolbox, / saying he would have wanted me to have it, / the hammer kept inside as if in a little grave.

November 2017
Poetry

After The Reading, Driving Back To Massachusetts With Jim Beschta, I Think Of The Men Who Hold The World In Their Hands

November 2008
Poetry

Each Moment Is Speaking To You Of The Other

July 2005
Poetry

My Mother Swimming

June 2004
Poetry

In A Dream It All Has To Be True Like The Moon

August 2003
Poetry

This Day

April 1995
Poetry

Old Men In Restrooms

March 1993
Poetry

This Life, This Word Unsaid

February 1993
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