Hello everyone!

It’s National Poetry Month and in honor of April as Arab-American Heritage Month, I wanted to share one of my favorite poems from Mahmoud Darwish.

I Belong There

I belong there. I have many memories. I was born as everyone is
     born.
I have a mother, a house with many windows, brothers, friends, and
    a prison cell
with a chilly window! I have a wave snatched by seagulls, a panorama 
    of my own.
I have a saturated meadow. In the deep horizon of my word, I have
    a moon,
a bird's sustenance, and an immortal olive tree.
I have lived on the land long before swords turned man into prey.
I belong there. When heaven mourns for her mother, I return 
    heaven to her mother.
And I cry so that a returning cloud might carry my tears.
To break the rules, I have learned all the words needed for a trial by 
    blood.
I have learned and dismantled all the words in order to draw from 
    them a
single word: Home.

This poem is a reflection on the trauma and turmoil, but also the blessed things in a home torn by fighting. There a deep longing for the home in his mind, one filled with light and beauty, but the reality is that it is a country torn.

Please share one of your favorite Arab-American poets. Or take some time check find one on poets.org.