On Being Chinese
In Xi'an, China, I saw camels clustered in loose groups outside the city walls, the traders' camps a mixture of colorful tents, utensils, bags, cottons and exotic spices from India. Above all, I saw silk semi colon piles and cascades of silk in all colors and textures that would be heading west..
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Ghorba
More than half a century in this land of opportunity, two wonderful children and three great grandchildren and I still feel Ghareeb here. My next door neighbor does not know me.
I have what millions of brothers and sisters back home dream of: freedom, unlimited opportunities, friends, material things, good medical care and the rights to vote and criticize freely but I still feel that one day in Jerusalem or any-where among "my people" is worth more than a year in America...
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Yuri Gagarin
“Yuri! Yuri! Yuri!” my brother’s shrill but excited voice reached me in more ways than one. As the youngest, I followed him around when he was home from school. In seeking his friendship..
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Dear friend
My friend, I’m thinking of you here in Jordan, in the bus on our way to Petra, with billowing mountains on the right and left. It takes my breath away. Yesterday we went to Om Qays, and old village on the top of a hill on the top of a mountain..
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Small boxes
How i hate these forms and all these small boxes!
Why?
They seem to reduce me!
Reduce you?
...
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Taking Stock
A cloistered quiet now.
Spring rain falling,
lilacs dripping.
Soon the moon will rise
and the stars sing their nightly vespers...
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Heavy….Light
I miss the heaviness/lightness of Beirut! I miss you ya reesheh min hadeed! (You feather from iron)
Lightness.....Heaviness: I feel my whole experiences in the ghourba can be put with these lines….
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Salma’s Song
Salma smiles as the machine churns out 2 instead of one
She is always a lucky one in a dirty cage of vulnerable chaos
Rubbish piling up instead on the outside and her inside is pure..
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Children of the sun
Children of the sun stand tall and proud!
When the ivory son of Adam,
being ignorant and haughty
asks "Why is your skin so dark"? ..
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Casting Call
1. Open casting call!
(You are an unidentified object
A confusing breed of “mixed blood”
A mutt
You have no place in our story)..
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OBITUARY TO A FRIEND IN A GHURBA
How can I go home now? How can I get in my room and who is going to wait for me from now on? Who is going to link me to my real world? To take me back home where I still am living, though I have been physically in a ghurba for a few months now?..
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What I do for Peace
Your note asked if I am continuing with peace work or if I have given up. While I haven't seen a lot of improvement in the situation, I try to continue to work for peace..
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Grandfather’s Olive Groves
Among the most joyous moments of my childhood were days spent picking olives. I’m a city person, born and raised in Jerusalem but, like every Palestinian, I have a connection with the village and the vineyard, with the farm and the fruit groves..
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Parents in Ghorba
When Amu Muhaned, Auntie Faiza and Farah(the al-Dahan family) are here in Boston summering from Iraq, we celebrate the 4 th of July (the day of America's independence) in a unique way. For many years now, the ritual has been the same: My mother spends the entire day making delectable English sandwiches to place in the cooler ..
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Poem in War Time
Get thee back, O buds of spring.
Do not leaf, do not flower.
No, not now while the bombs are falling
hour after fateful hour..
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GHORBA is embedded in the relationship one has with the surrounding
During the academic year 1997/98, I was a visiting scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. I did not have an income and my wife’s salary was not enough for us to live on...
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