Amongst the 240 plus kid­napped cit­i­zens on Octo­ber 7 is the eighty-five-year-old poet and com­pos­er, Ami­ram Coop­er – tak­en hostage with his wife Nurit from their Kib­butz, Nir Oz. Nurit has since been released by her Hamas cap­tors. Born in Haifa in 1938, Ami­ram was one of the founders of Kib­butz Nir Oz, arriv­ing in 1957, and liv­ing peace­ful­ly, rais­ing a fam­i­ly and build­ing a com­mu­ni­ty there until dark­ness descend­ed on Octo­ber 7. An econ­o­mist by pro­fes­sion, Ami­ram has com­posed songs and poet­ry for over six­ty years. He has often col­lab­o­rat­ed on the melodies with fel­low kib­butz mem­bers or mem­bers from oth­er kib­butz­im. He has authored two com­pi­la­tions of poet­ry. His work is doc­u­ment­ed on the Hebrew web­site Shi­ra Ovedet–​“Work­ing song.’’ Find the Shi­ra Ovedet page ded­i­cat­ed to Ami­ram Coop­er here. Lis­ten to a record­ing of the song here.