A Vibrant World | The poetic voices of Arab women from Algeria to Palestine

Bethlehem from the Church of the Nativity, Palestine, 1900-20 Bethlehem, 1880

Maram Masri (Syria)

Small Sins

Hold my hand
and take me to the heart
for I prefer your home,
oh poetry.

. ~

Fatima Mahmoud (Libya)

What was Not Conceivable

The patrolman
inhabits
the first line.
sucks out the blood of language,
strips the alphabet
of its dots
and tears out
the plumes of speech.

Syria2Bfrom2BThe2BEarly2B20th2BCentury2B2528252529

Apamea, Syria, early 20th CE

Palestinian2Bwomen2Band2Bchildren2Bdraw2Bwater2Bfrom2BMary25E225802599s2Bwell2Bin2BNazareth252C2BPalestine252C2Bon2BDec.2B7252C2B1946252C

Women and children draw water from Mary’s well in Nazareth, Palestine, Dec. 7 1946

Fawziyya Abu-Khalid

Two Little Girls

I hang on to the hem of her dress like a child hanging

On to the string of an immovable kite

I climb her braid like a squirrel climbing a hazelnut tree

In the late afternoon we jump from one world to another

we play in the wind

like sparrows that opened the door to the cage

( )

We share one apple and innumerable dreams

We paint a paradise of questions on the face of the desert

We spray each other with the water of the mirage

accompany a fleeting doe

Palestinian2Bwoman2Bfrom2BNazareth252C2Bwearing2Btraditional2Bcostume252C2B1910

Ramallah2B 2B25D825B125D825A725D925852B25D825A725D9258425D9258425D925872B2B2BRamallah2Bwoman2Bdressed2Bin2Btraditional2BThobe2Bunder2Ba2Bfig2Btree252C2B1920s

Woman from Nazareth, with traditional costume, 1910 Woman dressed in traditional Thobe under a fig tree, Ramallah, 1920s

Suheir Hammad

Of woman torn

did her skin smell

of zataar her hair of

exploded almonds

between the olive trees

her father lit the match brothers poured the flammable

the women they watched the women they tucked

their sex away under

skirts under secrets

( )

family pride laid

between her thighs

honor in her panties

and no oslo accord

or camp david signing

could free her sex

from its binding

( )

where was he when they found the swelling

of your belly proof of humanity

where was he when they stuck fists up

inside you to prove you loose

PALESTINE2B 2BBethlehem252C2B1890s2B2528early2B20th2Bc.25292B322B2528Barley2Bharvest2529

Barley harvest, Bethlehem, 1890s

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Drawing Water Bethlehem, Palestine, Sept. 2 1938

Fadhila Chabbi

The Blind Goddess

And the blind goddess, when we touched her
like a twinkling of the eye.
On the dry shore her hurried gait…
And in her face when sun and moon quarreled,
and in her step when the sea pecked a drop of life
the water receded—having become pregnant—for a time.
How can the letter be Seeing, Omnipotent.
a peer to the bleated, jealous god.
And in the blind goddess when she dimmed
and the earth came to be
and it was the insolence of the ages.