UniVerse :: A United Nations of Poetry

Palestine

Ibtisam Barakat | Naomi Shihab Nye
Mahmoud Darwish | Fady Joudah

photo by Steve Fish

Ibtisam Barakat Ibtisam Barakat grew up in Ramallah and now lives in the United States. Her work centers on healing the hurts of racism, sexism and the oppression of young people. She taught Writing Ethics at Stephens College and is the founder of Write Your Life seminars.

Her short stories include “Piano Obsession,” published in What A Song Can Do, Edited by Jennifer Armstrong, A. Knopf/Random House, 2004, and “Sheriffs and Indians of
the East,” published in Gilcrease Journal, 2004. Her poetry includes “The Home Within,” featured in The Flag of Childhood, Edited by Naomi Shihab Nye, and published by Aladdin/Simon and Schuster, 2002, and “Alphabets of My Life,” published in www.meenamag.org, 2006.

Ibtisam's memoir about growing up in Ramallah, “Tasting The Sky: A Palestinian Childhood,” is forthcoming from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Ibtisam can be reached at i_barakat@yahoo.com.

Curfew	English \| Audio

English version

Curfew

Our city is a cell
Children’s faces
Are replacing
Flower pots on
Window sills.
And we are waiting.

From our bars
Of boredom
We enter
A spit race
The one whose spit
Reaches farther
Is freer.

We look to the sky
Squint our questions.

We turn the sun
Into a kite
Hold it with a ray
Till it is torn up
Inside the horizon.

And the light is
Peeled off the ground
A page in a bedtime story
We do not understand.

Our questions remain
A yeast
Inside our chests,
Rising.

Audio version

Curfew

Click on the title of the poem below to listen.

Curfew - Arabic version.
Curfew - English version.

Audio production assistance: Trina Brunk - www.trinasdesign.com

Tea Invitation	Arabic \| English \| Audio

Arabic version

English version

Tea Invitation

I write
for my heart
has become
a country
and I want
all people
to live in it.

I make space
by emptying
all corners
of fear.

I make peace
by making
a cup of tea
for my story
and yours.

A cup of tea
for our estranged
histories
that come from
one family
but to one another
do not speak.

Hot tea and mint.
I have meant
to invite you over
to my heart.

Do you like your tea
with sugar?

Audio version

Tea Invitation

Click on the title of the poem below to listen.

Tea Invitation - Arabic version.
Tea Invitation - English version.

Audio production assistance: Trina Brunk - www.trinasdesign.com

Pencil	Arabic \| English \| Audio

Arabic version

English version

Pencil

A stone mosque
stands like a pencil
taller than
eucalyptus trees
in our village’s center.

The minaret sings
into the ears
of the sky
till people answer.

We bare our feet and
line in prayer.

We ask that you erase
all wars.

Erase!

We ask that you erase
all fears.

Erase! Erase!

Foreheads resting
on the ground,
our daily paper
we write and repeat:

Peace be upon all people.

Audio version

Pencil

Click on the title of the poem below to listen.

Pencil - Arabic version.
Pencil - English version.

Audio production assistance: Trina Brunk - www.trinasdesign.com