In
the middle of her sleep
I ask you'do birds fly at night?'
While the rain birds crash outside
my window
I watch the light lick the wall
and wonder at the birdless sky
I have spent much of my life teaching
dead birds to fly - now,
the cage is empty
the nest abandoned long ago.
I ask you'do birds fly at night?'
While the rain birds crash outside
my window
I watch the light lick the wall
and wonder at the birdless sky
I have spent much of my life teaching
dead birds to fly - now,
the cage is empty
the nest abandoned long ago.
Julie Asby,1999
WITHIN THIS TREE
within this tree
another tree
inhabits the same body;
within this stone
another stone rests;
its many shades of gray
the same, its identical
surface and weight.
And within my body,
whose history, waiting,
sings: there is another body,
it sings,
there is no other world.
Jane Hirshfield.
But I am the exile.
Seal me with your eyes.
Take me wherever you are-
Take me whatever you are
Restore to me the colour of face
And the warmth of body
The light of heart and eye,
The salt of bread and rhythm,
The taste of earth...the Motherland.
Shield me with your eyes.
Take me as a relic from the mansion of sorrow
Take me as a verse from my tragedy;
take me as a toy, a brick from the house
So that our children will remember to return.
Mahmud Darwish.
