Bedouin Poetry from Sinai and the Negev: Mirror of a Culture Book

This is really more than just a book of poetry. I see a lot of people posting derogatory comments about Arabs and their culture, and, given that the Bedouin are predominately an illiterate, itinerant culture, they are not in a strong position to defend themselves. Such a lifestyle does not lend itself well to the arts generally such as painting, calligraphy, or sculpture; however, the spoken word is a perfect medium for such a race, and all that creativity is, instead, channeled into one medium --- poetry. As this book shows, the Bedouin are immensely rich, creative, clever, innovative poets. It goes beyond art --- it relates how they view the world, how they see each other, their history, their values. In my year long study of Arab Bedouin culture, this was a fine book to close things out ---- a feast for the eyes and the ears, and an appreciation that, while not all our cultures are the same, some excellence and beauty can be found in nearly all of them by the open mind and the curious eye.