This April, in honor of National Poetry Month, I accepted a poetry dare from TweetSpeakPoetry: to read a poem every day of the month and share it with my friends. I opted for the challenge of reading a single poet per week, alternating between historical and contemporary poets.
Here’s a day-by-day list of what I read during week 1. Learn more about my chosen poet, Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008), here.
Day 1 – “No More and No Less” by Mahmoud Darwish, Tran. Fady Joudah
“and I write tomorrow
on yesterday’s sheets:…”
Day 2 – “To a Young Poet” by Mahmoud Darwish, Tran. Fady Joudah
“Don’t believe our outlines, forget them
and begin from your own words.”
Day 3 – “Who Am I, Without Exile?” by Mahmoud Darwish, Tran. Fady Joudah
“…Nothing
carries me or makes me carry an idea: not longing
and not promise. What will I do?…”
Day 4 – “To Our Land” by Mahmoud Darwish, Tran. Fady Joudah
“To our land,
and it is the one far from the adjectives of nouns,
the map of absence”
Day 5 – “A Noun Sentence” by Mahmoud Darwish, Tran. Fady Joudah
“…A noun sentence: my wounded joy
like the sunset at your strange windows.”
Day 6 – “I Belong There” by Mahmoud Darwish, Tran. Carolyn Forché and Munir Akash
“I have learned and dismantled all the words in order to draw from them a
single word: Home.”
Snark on the Side 