The selected poems by Jessica Ursell confront the lived aftermath of violence, captivity, and inherited trauma with unflinching moral clarity. Written in the shadow of October 7th and its reverberations, these poems speak from a position shaped by historical memory and present urgency, where the body becomes both witness and instrument of reckoning.
In The Uneasy Supplicant, prayer is stripped of certainty and ritual stability. The speaker moves between kneeling, standing, and saluting, searching for a posture that might carry sufficient weight to reach those held captive. The poem exposes the tension between discipline and helplessness, faith and futility, as the body struggles to translate anguish into action within a “nowhere space”—a sky-bound temple of clouds where suffering seeks recognition.
The Scream of a Post-October 7th Jew descends into the claustrophobic logic of nightmare, where historical persecution collapses into contemporary fear. The poem stages an intimate scene of terror inside a childhood home, merging ancestral memory with present threat. The locked door, the muffled screams, and the mob outside echo the persistence of ancient hatred, while the speaker’s desperate resistance affirms the primal need to protect life in the face of overwhelming force.
Across these poems, Ursell writes with restraint and intensity, refusing abstraction or consolation. Her language is direct, embodied, and ethically charged, insisting on attention rather than resolution. These are poems that refuse silence, that insist on presence, and that challenge the reader not to look away—to recognize that remembrance, prayer, and witness are not passive acts, but moral responsibilities.
Note: The poem The Scream of a Post-October 7th Jew was first published by The Jewish Writing Project in June 2024. The poem The Uneasy Supplicant was first published by Iron Words: Israel War Stories in April 2025.
The project is part of subthemes Writing After – Catastrophe, Memory, and the Archive of Loss and The Poetics of Care – Intimacy, Tenderness, Repair.
Author
Jessica Ursell
A poet and social justice advocate, Jessica Ursell lives with her husband in the cradle of the Campi Flegrei in Southern Italy. Inspired by the cerulean sea, and strong scent of espresso at her favorite pasticceria, Jessica writes about love, power, finding one's voice, and the mesmeric magic of il bel paese. Her most recent poems are Ricotta Cheese English, published by Mediterranean Poetry in November 2024 and I Can Walk Through Walls of Words, appearing in Academy of the Heart and Mind in December 2024.
Her poems and essays have been published by Writing in a Woman’s Voice; Ritualwell; Down in the Dirt magazine (v. 216 Scars Publications) as well as in the book, The Limits of Language, and the book Where Icarus Went; Fellowship & Fairydust, among others.
