I Come from There
I come from there and I have memories
Born as mortals are, I have a mother
And a house with many windows,
I have brothers, friends,
And a prison cell with a cold window.
Mine is the wave, snatched by sea-gulls,
I have my own view,
And an extra blade of grass.
Mine is the moon at the far edge of the words,
And the bounty of birds,
And the immortal olive tree.
I walked this land before the swords
Turned its living body into a laden table.
I come from there. I render the sky unto her mother
When the sky weeps for her mother.
And I weep to make myself known
To a returning cloud.
I learnt all the words worthy of the court of blood
So that I could break the rule.
I learnt all the words and broke them up
To make a single word: Homeland…..
Mahmoud Darwish
Born: 13 March 1941, Al-Birwa, Palestine
Nationality: Palestinian
Died: 9 August 2008, Texas, USA
Darwish was a poet and author, regarded as the Palestinian National poet. Darwish won numerous awards for his works. He used Palestine as a metaphor for the loss of Eden, birth and resurrection, and the anguish of his dispossession and exile. Darwish has been described as the political poet in Islam, the man of action whose action is poetry
Jezzie G 