The demise of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who was laid to rest on Wednesday, evokes a complex of emotions in the Palestinian people themselves, in Arabs and in all advocates of stability and peace all over the world.

What can one say on such an occasion? Naturally, one wants to say a great deal. However, compared to what Darwish himself has said, what we say, no matter how elaborate and elegant, is a drop in an ocean. And that is why my advice to readers is: rather than read what people say about Darwish, read Darwish himself. It is way superior, and way more elegant.

Darwish, in his poetry and in his life, has been an epitome of the Palestinian cause itself (from the early 1940s, when he was born, to 2008, when he died): the initial tragedy, dispossession, dispersal, hardships, struggle for survival, hope for a better life, hope for peace, partial peace, frustrations about the prospects of a final peace settlement, continued suffering, continued occupation, and so forth.

Throughout his illustrious life as a distinguished poet of international calibre, Darwish expressed all of these impulses, emotions and experiences in his poetry, which is equally appreciated by both scholars and critics as well as ordinary people. His poetry has given hope (even psychological therapy) to all Palestinians, Arabs and advocates of the rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness - for almost half a century.

Like Palestinians, Arabs and peace advocates all over the globe, Darwish would have appreciated full, complete peace between Palestinians and Israelis, Arabs and Israelis, and peace and stability in the whole region.

It is sad that he died at a moment when not only have full peace and stability not happened, but when they seem so far away. Sad, indeed, that he died when we are so uncertain about what will happen in Palestine in the days and years to come, as well as in the whole region.

What kind of poetry would he have written had peace materialised in his lifetime? We already have an idea, because in his poetry Darwish shows how capable he is of writing about life in peace.

Now that he is dead, many of us, in fact, feel a double loss: loss of so many opportunities to achieve durable peace in Palestine and the region, and loss of more first-rate poetry about war and peace in Palestine and the region - poetry that gives comfort and hope to so many people.

We are sad - very sad indeed. But we also feel a great sense of pride in the emergence of such a great literary figure who compares with the best in the world, past and present.

We feel a sense of loss - great loss; but we also feel a sense of gratefulness: for a man who, in the middle of so much suffering and so many tragedies, has - and paradoxically so - endowed us with so much hope, love, happiness and romance. He is a man who, simply, has given us hope amidst despair; a clinging onto life amidst death.

May his soul, that never knew rest in life, rest in peace. May peace, a major theme in Darwish, prevail in Palestine, in the region, and in the globe. May his death be an occasion for all of us to work for stability and peace.