Enrile, next 🙏🏼

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Because the house is farther, and the road to it prettier - that's what my new song would say. Whenever the road lengthens the meaning renews, and I become two on this road: I... and another!

MAHMOUD DARWISH If I Were Another If I were another on the road, I would not have looked back, I would have said what one traveler said to another: stranger! awaken the guitar more! Delay our tomorrow so our road may extend and space may widen for us, and we may get rescued from our story together: you are so much yourself. And I am so much other than myself right here before you! If I were another I would have belonged to the road, so that neither I nor you would return. Awaken the guitar and we might sense the unknown and the route that tempts the traveler to test gravity. I am only my steps, and you are both my compass and my chasm. If I were another on the road, I would have hidden my emotions in the suitcase, so my poem would be of water, diaphanous, white, abstract, and lightweight.stronger than memory, and weaker than dew drops, and I would have said: my abyss is this expanse! If I were another on the road, I would have said to the guitar: teach me an extra string!

If I Were Another by Mahmoud Darwish

“Suffering does not make people good. It just makes them suffer.”

- Art Spiegelman

List of countries that were in favor, against and abstained on the adoption of a humanitarian truce 120 in favor 45 abstained 14 against: Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Fiji, Guatemala, Hungary, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tonga, USA

14 genocide supporters
45 complicit cowards

In Palestinian folklore, we believe that stones can be our witnesses. Even though Israel has effectively severed Gaza from communication with the rest of the world, the acts that it commits there will not go unrecorded and unremembered.

Say Palestine. Say Palestinians. End apartheid.

THE LAUGHING HEART YOUR LIFE IS YOUR LIFE DON'T LET IT BE CLUBBED INTO DANK SUBMISSION. BE ON THE WATCH. THERE ARE WAYS OUT. THERE IS A LIGHT SOMEWHERE. IT MAY NOT BE MUCH LIGHT BUT IT BEATS THE DARKNESS. BE ON THE WATCH. THE GODS WILL OFFER YOU CHANCES. KNOW THEM. TAKE THEM. YOU CAN'T BEAT DEATH BUT YOU CAN BEAT DEATH IN LIFE, SOMETIMES. AND THE MORE OFTEN YOU LEARN TO DO IT, THE MORE LIGHT THERE WILL BE. YOUR LIFE IS YOUR LIFE. KNOW IT WHILE YOU HAVE IT. YOU ARE MARVELOUS THE GODS WAIT TO DELIGHT IN YOU.

The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski

Van Gogh's last words were, "The sadness will last forever." He, who knew the dark. He, who nonetheless painted stars within it. And me, who knows it too. And me, who has nonetheless punched my fair share of holes within it and shone a flashlight through them and called them stars. The sadness will not last forever. I know because every day I bloody my knuckles in the pursuit of something I might see by. - KRISTINA MAHR -

A poem by Kristina Mahr

The Israeli occupation of Palestine and siege of Gaza is a crime against humanity. The US and other countries that support this occupation with money and weapons are party to that crime. The horror we are witnessing right now - is a consequence of that crime. No amount of commentary about the cruelty of this "war", no amount condemnation of the excesses committed by either side, no amount of false equivalence about the scale of those atrocities will lead to a solution. The solution can only be an international intervention that calls for talks to end the occupation, to end this system of Apartheid. That alone will halt the cycle of horrible murders of Israeli citizens and the genocide of Palestinians Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy ⤵️

I wish children didn't die. I wish they would be temporarily elevated to the skies until the war ends. Then they would return home safe, and when their parents would ask them, where were you? they would say, we were playing in the clouds. - Ghassan Kanafani

A poem by Ghassan Kanafani

You booked the night train for a reason
So you could sit there in this hurt

Bustling crowds or silent sleepers
You're not sure which is worse

To Our Land To ourland. and it is the one near the word of god, a cesling of clouds. To our land, and it is the one far from the adjectives of nouns. the map of absence. To our land, and it is the one tiny as a sesame seed, a heavenly horizon... and a bidden chasm. To our land, and it is the one poor as a grouse's wings. holy books. and an identity wound. To our land, and it is the one surrounded with torn hills. the ambush ofa new past. To our land, and it is a prize of war. the freedom to die from longing and burning and our land, in its bloodied night. is a jewel that glimmers for the far upon the far and illuminates what is outside it… As for us, inside, we suffocate more!

To Our Land by Mahmoud Darwish

If you must hurt each other, then hurt each other but do not hurt children, or the weak, or the frail, or the very old. If you must hurt each other, then hurt each other but do not hurt those who do not want to fight, whose only sin is wanting a warm safe room, whose only sin is being born here, in the place where you want to hurt each other. If you must hurt each other, then hurt each other, hurt each other, hurt each other until there is no one left to hurt each other anymore, and only children remain - Iain S. Thomas

A poem by Iain S. Thomas

A STATE OF SIEGE In a land preparing for its dawn, in a while the planets will sleep in the language of poetry. In a while we will bid this hard road farewell, and ask: Where shall we begin? In a while we will warn the young mountain daffodils their beauty will be eclipsed when our young women pass by. * I raise a glass to those who share my vision of a butterfly's joyful iridescence in this interminable tunnel of night. From 'State of Siege' by Mahmoud Darwish Translation by Sabry Hafez and Sarah Maguire

A State of Siege by Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet

ANG PATALIM (Para sa mga nasawî sa Gaza at Israel mula 7 Oktubre 2023) Kailangan lang ng sinaunang poot, Bagong inggit, At gahaman utak Para malímot ko ang tamis ng prutas-Ang tamis ng mansanas man o bayabas Na pinaghatian at pinagsaluhan-At maging kasangkapan ako Sa pagsaksak sa dibdib ng tumututol at kaaway. Ayoko ng digma; Ngunit kailangan kong mandahas, Pumaslang, magwasak, Sa ngalan ng kalayan, katarungan, Demokrasya, o anumang magandang katwiran Para magwagi ang poot, inggit, o pangangamkam. RIO ALMA 11 Oktubre 2023

Ang Patalim by Rio Alma

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Think of Others As you prepare your breakfast, think of others (do not forget the pigeon's food). As you wage your wars, think of others (do not forget those who seek peace). As you pay your water bill, think of others (those who are nursed by clouds). As you return home, to your home, think of others (do not forget the people of the camps). As you sleep and count the stars, think of others (those who have nowhere to sleep). As you express yourself in metaphor, think of others (those who have lost the right to speak). As you think of others far away, think of yourself (say: If only I were a candle in the dark).

Think of Others by Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish

You are angry and anxious because you never agreed to live in a burning home while the people who should care pretend the fire doesn't exist. Distress is a valid emotional response to injustice. - Nikita Gill

A poem by Nikita Gill

I Come From There I come from there and I have memories Born as mortals are, I have a mother And a house with many windows, I have brothers, friends, And a prison cell with a cold window. Mine is the wave, snatched by sea-gulls, Thave my own view, And an extra blade of grass. Mine is the moon at the far edge of the words, And the bounty of birds, And the immortal olive tree. I walked this land before the swords Turned its living body into a laden table. I come from there. I render the sky unto her mother When the sky weeps for her mother. And I weep to make myself known To a returning cloud. I learnt all the words worthy of the court of blood So that I could break the rule. I learnt all the words and broke them up To make a single word: Homeland.....

I Come From There by Mahmoud Darwish

#FreePalestine

Palestine This land gives us all that makes life worth living: April's blushing advances, the aroma of bread at dawn, a woman's haranguing of men, the poetry of Aeschylus, love's trembling beginning, moss on a stone mothers dancing on a flute's thread and the invaders' fear of memories. This land give us all that makes life worth living: September's rustling end, a woman leaving forty behind with her apricots, an hour of sunlight in prison, clouds reflecting swarms of insects, a people's applause for those who laugh at their erasure, and the tyrant's fear of songs. This land give us all that makes life worth living: Lady Earth, mother of all beginnings and endings, She was called Palestine and she is still called Palestine. My Lady, because you are my Lady, I deserve life. Mahmoud Darwish

Palestine by Mahmoud Darwish

How heavy my mind is, filled with the past. Is there enough room for the world to penetrate? It must go somewhere, it cannot simply sit on the surface- Stars gleaming over the water. The leaves piled, waiting to be lit. Insight, my sister said. Now it is here. But hard to see in the darkness. You must find your footing before you put your weight on it. Louise Glück, "Autumn" NEW YORKER

Rest in Power Louise Glück

Autumn by Louise Glück

In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love. In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile. In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm. I realized, through it all, that... In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, theres something stronger - something better, pushing right back. Albert Camus

IN THE MEANTIME Tom Hirons Meanwhile, flowers still bloom. The moon rises, and the sun. Babies smile and somewhere, Against all the odds, Two people are falling in love. Strangers share cigarettes and jokes. Light plays on the surface of water. Grace occurs on unlikely streets And we hold each other fast Against entropy, the fires and the flood. Life leans towards living And, while death claims all things at the end, There were such precious times between, In which everything was radiant And we loved, again, this world. www.tombirons.com insta: @BearSpeaksTo TheStars twitter: @BearSpeaks facebook: @hironstom

Love Is Not All Love is not all: It is not meat nor drink Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain, Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink and rise and sink and rise and sink again. Love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone; Yet many a man is making friends with death even as I speak, for lack of love alone. It well may be that in a difficult hour, pinned down by need and moaning for release or nagged by want past resolution's power, I might be driven to sell your love for peace, Or trade the memory of this night for food. It well may be. I do not think I would. - Edna St. Vincent Millay

Love is not all by Edna St. Vincent Millar

Hello

The Weighing Jane Hirshfield, 1953 The heart's reasons seen clearly, even the hardest will carry its whip-marks and sadness and must be forgiven. As the drought-starved cland forgives the drought-starved lion who finally takes her, enters willingly then the life she cannot refuse, and is lion, is fed, and does not remember the other. So few grains of happiness measured against all the dark and still the scales balance. The world asks of us only the strength we have and we give it. Then it asks more, and we give it.

The Weighing by Jane Hirshfield

The Thing Is BY ELLEN BASS to love life, to love it even when you have no stomach for it and everything you've held dear crumbles like burnt paper in your hands, your throat filled with the silt of it. When grief sits with you, its tropical heat thickening the air, heavy as water more fit for gills than lungs; when grief weights you down like your own flesh only more of it, an obesity of grief, you think, How can a body withstand this? Then you hold life like a face between your palms, a plain face, no charming smile, no violet eyes, and you say, yes, I will take you I will love you, again.

The Thing Is by Ellen Bass

Don't Hesitate If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don't hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that's often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don't be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb. - Mary Oliver

Don’t hesitate by Mary Oliver

To the Young Who Want to Die Sit down. Inhale. Exhale. The gun will wait. The lake will wait. The tall gall in the small seductive vial will wait will wait: will wait a week: will wait through April. You do not have to die this certain day. Death will abide, will pamper your postponement. I assure you death will wait. Death has a lot of time. Death can attend to you tomorrow. Or next week. Death is just down the street; is most obliging neighbor; can meet you any moment. You need not die today. Stay here-through pout or pain or peskyness. Stay here. See what the news is going to be tomorrow. Graves grow no green that you can use. Remember, green's your color. You are Spring. - Gwendolyn Brooks

To the young who want to die by Gwendolyn Brooks

Tired I am so tired of waiting, Aren't you, For the world to become good And beautiful and kind? Let us take a knife And cut the world in two-And see what worms are eating At the rind. - Langston Hughes

Tired by Langston Hughes