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Weeks before he was killed by an Israeli airstrike, Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer shared his 2011 poem If I Must Die. The persona then invites readers to make and fly white kites in his honor, so that a child in Gaza, who only knows hardship, “sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above/and thinks for a moment an angel is there/bringing back love.” Since his death in Northern Gaza on Dec. 6, his words have taken on new significance—not least for how they capture the civilian experience, but also for how they serve as a self-written eulogy for the late poet.

The poems of Palestinian greats such as Refaat Alareer and Mahmoud Darwish become tools of resistance during the Israel-Hamas war.

To those of us lucky enough to learn from him, Alareer offered a chance to explore new worlds and stories, defying the laws of physics and oppression.

In October, Refaat Alareer was deliberating whether to stay at his home in the heart of Gaza City, or flee further south with his wife and six children.