In the state of siege, time becomes space
Transfixed in its eternity
In the state of siege, space becomes time
That has missed its yesterday and its tomorrow…
The siege will last in order to convince us we must choose
an enslavement that does no harm, in fullest liberty!
- Under Siege by Mahmoud Darwish
Gaza is still under siege
Mahmoud Darwish […]

I.
I learned to whistle our bloody history through my teeth
Painted our folklore on the harsh canvas walls of caves
To remember the biographies of a continent
That screamed to the colonialist
This is the way we dance
These are our truths
Yes, every winter we ate clementines
And in the fall we picked the olives
Pressed the oil beneath our nails for […]

Admit something:
Everyone you see, you say to them,
“Love me.”
Of course you do not do this out loud;
Otherwise,
Someone would call the cops.
Still
Though,
Think about this,
This great pull in us to connect.
Why not become the one
Who lives with a full moon in each eye
That is always saying,
With
that
sweet
moon
language,
What every other eye in this world
Is dying
To hear.
- Hafiz

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What a skilled man can do with a hammer
The advanced pilgram can do with
Thought.
One builds their own seat in this world
Using God -
The only material
That is
E
v
e
r
y
w
h
e
r
e
.
- Hafiz

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Let your
Intelligence begin to rule
Whenever you sit with others
Using this sane idea:
Leave all your cocked guns in a field
Far from us,
One of those damn things
Might
Go
Off.
- Hafiz

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As a 24 year old male, this is probably going to make me sound like a big wimp, but I don’t care, because Suheir Hammad’s poems seem to be the only thing that have the ability to draw a tear from my eye these days. Of course, I will immediately pretend something is caught in […]

Some people work and become wealthy.
Others do the same and remain poor.
Marriage fills one with energy.
Another, it drains.
Don’t trust ways.
They change.
A means flails about like a donkey’s tail.
So always add the gratitude clause:
‘if God wills’.
Then proceed.
You may be leading a donkey, no, a goat, no, who can tell?
We sit in a dark pit and […]

These spiritual windowshoppers, who idly ask, How much is that? Oh, I’m just looking.
They handle a hundred items and put them down,
Shadows with no capital.
What is spent is love
And two eyes wet with weeping.
But these walk into a shop,
And their whole lives pass suddenly in that moment,
In that shop.
Where did you go?
Nowhere
What did you have […]

The Grizzly Bear is huge and wild
He has devoured the infant child.
The infant child is not aware
It has been eaten by the bear.
- A. E. Housman

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Our Father
Which are in Heaven
White man owe me eleven and pay me seven
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done
And if I hadn’t took that
I wouldn’ta get
None
- Negro Folk Secular
Modern slavery?
nuff said.

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Understanding the physics of God,
His Indivisible Nature,
Makes every universe and atom confess:
I am just a helpless puppet that cannot dance
Without the movement of His hand.
Dear ones,
This curriculum tonight is for the advanced
And
Will
Get
All
The blame straight
…
End the mental
Lawsuits
That
Clog
The
Brain
H
a
l
l
e
l
u
j
a
h
Baby!
- Hafiz

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Now
That
All your worry
Has proven such an
Unlucrative
Business,
Why
Not
Find a better
Job
?
- Hafiz

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Before
Hip Hop
there was
Nat
King
Cole
Sugar Ray
and
Miles.
Cool
was
how
you
held a
cigarette
between
fingers or entered
a ring
or simply
found your stage
and turned your back
to the world.
- E. Ethelbert Miller

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What
Do sad people have in
Common?
It seems
They have all built a shrine
To the past
And often go there
And do a strange wail and
Worship.
What is the beginning of
Happiness?
It is to stop being
So religious…
Like
That.
- Hafiz
The mosque of this affluent neighborhood is crowded. My father lives here and prays here but is not from here; not of here. His spirit […]

Would you think it odd if Hafiz said,
“I am in love with every church
And mosque
And temple
And any kind of shrine
Because I know it is there
That people say the different names
Of the One God.”
?
Would you tell your friends I was a bit strange
if I admitted I am indeed in love with every mind
And heart and body.
?
O, […]

“There’s hidden sweetness in the stomach’s emptiness.
We are lutes.
No more, no less.
If the soundbox is stuffed full of anything…
no music.
If the brain and belly are burning clean
with fasting, every moment
a new song
comes out
of
the
fire.
- Jelaluddin Rumi (1207 - 1273)

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