I search in my dreams and in the stars for the tranquility of peace
But there's violence and wars all over the Middle East
How do I sleep knowing an innocent baby has been killed for her roots
Palestine my heart yearns for you as the Israelis shoot
"The rockets may be above us, but they have forgotten that Allah is above them"
- a Palestinian child -
And if they ask you about Gaza, tell them:
In it there is a martyr nursed by a martyr photographed by a martyr sent off by a martyr and prayed for by a martyr.
Mahmoud Darwish
We wake up in the comfort of our homes. They wake up surrounded by blood of their own.
"Off the news, the kids are crying.
Hide them away, comfort them with lies.
Dreams shattered, By missiles' might, A community in need, Fading from sight.
Gaze through the window, Children run and play, Is it a game of tag,
Or danger in their way?"
- Yasmina B
The war will end. The leaders will shake hands. The old woman will keep waiting for her martyred son.
That girl will wait for her beloved husband. And those children will wait for their heroic father. I don't know who sold our homeland. But I saw who paid the price.
- Mahmoud Darwish
"Oh rascal children of Gaza. You who constantly disturbed me with your screams under my window. You who filled every morning with rush and chaos. You who broke my vase and stole the lonely flower on my balcony.
Come back, and scream as you want and break all the vases. Steal all the flowers. Come back.Just come back."
- Khaled Juma, a Palestinian poet from Gaza.
The Weeping eyes, broken heart, arms longing to hide my child from power-hungry leaders of the world
Because I know their hunger won't be satisfied until they turn the beautiful smile of my child into dead lips crushed under debris
I am a Palestinian mother
My heart yearns to see you living your dreams while I write your name on your hand, so if you are killed, I may get to know that my lap that used to chuckle with your laughter is now turned into a lonely grave I am a Palestinian father
I want to be beholden by my mother's love
My stomach burns with hunger My existence, they desire to erase My eyes starve for the sight of my father's securing face
I am a Palestinian child
-Ramsha Shadam
In order for me to write poetry that isn't political
I must listen to the birds
and in order to hear the birds
the warplanes must be silent.
You can disregard humanity
Because you never
Learned it from your mothers.
You can murder children
Because your hearts Are dead.
You can blind the unblind
Because they are
Unaware and uneducated.
But there is one thing you
Cannot escape
Is God's justice to your injustice.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,
A land of beauty, lost to war's relentless spree.
In the heart of ancient lands, where history does decree,
A tale of strength and courage, a people's legacy.
Once a place of thriving life, where olive trees did sway, Now scarred by strife and conflict, where hope did fade away.
But in the midst of turmoil, where darkness seemed to be,
The spirit of the people rose, unwavering and free.
Bravery in every step, resilience in their eyes, They stood against the tempest, under vast and endless skies.
In the face of adversity, they held their dignity,
Dreaming of a brighter day, a peaceful destiny.
I long to see the children play, with laughter in their hearts,
In a Palestine at peace, where healing truly starts.
Where the sounds of birds above, replace the bombs that cease,
And from the river to the sea, Palestine finds its peace.
- Hajara shinas
I shall not compromise
And to the last pulse in my veins I shall resist.
O enemy of the sun
The decorations are raised at the port.
The ejaculations fill the air, A glow in the hearts, And in the horizon A sail is seen
Challenging the wind And the depths.
It is Ulysses
Returning home
From the sea of loss
It is the return of the sun, Of my exiled ones
And for her sake, and his I swear
I shall not compromise
And to the last pulse in my veins
I shall resist,
Resist and resist.
If this is a war,
where are the soldiers dying in uniforms?
"If the olive tree knew the hands that planted them, their oil would become tears."
Oh Palestine, if your love was a crime
then let history witness that I am a criminal for loving you.
'If Israel deserves a minute of silence then Palestine deserves the world to never speak again.
- Karim Wafa Al-Hussaini
As if war is ever a coincidence As if genocide simply happens
-Suheir Hammad
and when their children were murdered, the jewish, palestinian, armenian, syrian, ukrainian, mother
screamed the same scream. cried the same tears.
They stained innocent smiles with ashes, And turned homes into memories.
Hopeless dreams got blood splashes.
That hometown obtained fresh injuries.
All in the name of "Peace"
- Maryam
"All Palestinians are poets; by instinct.
They may not write poetry, but they are poets because they intimately know two important things:
Beauty of Nature and Tragedy; whoever has both must be a poet."
When I look back now at those years in the eighties when I could walk without restraint, I feel gratified to have used that freedom and taken all those walks and got to know the hills.
