These poems originate from a heart full of love for both nature and human beings, what a wonderful human she is herself.-Dr. Helen Caldicott

In War Poems, Mimi German's compassion and heartbreak shine clearly through the carnage. A Jew who refuses the easy out of taking sides, she stands with her hands and her heart open to Arab and Jew alike-to all who are human, and to their suffering. She finds both beauty and horror in the first 100 days of a reality we would all rather ignore, and in so doing, she helps us to not look away. -Rabbi Ariel Stone, Temple Shir Tikvah, Portland The War Poems is a priceless meditation on the effect of war, even on those far from battle. The poems encourage us to consider not just the suffering of war, but the cost to our souls.-Pastor Steven Kimes

When there was a roaring silence from so many, these poems comforted and companioned me with their ability to hold a moment, to look at a shard of glass with all lights reflecting through. They have helped me process the grief and shock of the latest war in the Middle East, through the continuing escalation in Gaza, through the sometimes inexplicable reaction of various nations. Thank you, Mimi, for your courage, your humanity, your search for truth, your dedication to this world.During the first hundred days of Israel's assault on Gaza after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Mimi German posted a poem a day. These daily meditations express tenderness, balance, and empathy for all who suffer and for the impermanent beauties of (even) blood-soaked moments.-K. Kendall, Ph.D., retired professor of Theatre and English.
During a time when the most far-right government in Israel's history has been found guilty of a plausible case of genocide in Gaza by the International Court of Justice, it seems crucial for Jewish and other poets to present alternative visions, visions for peace, for Israel and Palestine. As a longtime poet and peace activist, Mimi German has the literary skills and political experience to address these urgent and complicated times. Her war poems-really, peace poems-are humane, thought-provoking, philosophically deep, and filled with the kind of astonishing, "aha" phrasings that Emily Dickinson said were the ingredients needed to create powerful and memorable poetry: "war can be heard in the silence of death"; "a genocide to which they've cheered l'chaim"; "the game of revenge / ends in nightmares"; "we all have forgotten never to forget." While also mourning Israeli victims of the terrible 10/7 Hamas attacks, and pages before explicitly criticizing the extremist, hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, German writes: "without anesthesia / let us hear the truth / about war." And in these pages, she offers nonviolent truths ("how does one sleep / when the pillows of justice / are covered in bloodshed") and truth-truce poems in ways that could hopefully warm even the coldest of hearts.

-Eliot Katz, Poet and author of The Poetry and Politics of Allen Ginsberg