Peace in Poetry

Mahmoud Darwish is one of the most admired Arab poets. He was born in a village in upper Galilee, in 1942. In 1948, he fled with his family to Lebanon when the Israeli Army destroyed his village. A former member of the PLO’s Executive Council, and the Poet Laureate of Palestine, he wrote the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence.

photos I took from the roof of a friend's home in
Kalandia Refugee Camp, West Bank

The water tanks for when the water is shut off and the solar panels to save money and be more efficient. Amazing, even the refugee camps of the West Bank are ahead of the U.S. energy practices.

Mahmoud Darwish's poem, below, gives a simple yet deep vision of the future of Palestine when the oppression of the occupation is over and there is PEACE.

My favorite line,

"a dove will sleep in the afternoon in an abandoned combat tank"
Below is the poem in English then Arabic:

Another day will come, a womanly day diaphanous in metaphor, complete in being, diamond and processional in visitation, sunny, flexible, with a light shadow. No one will feel a desire for suicide or for leaving. All things, outside the past, natural and real, will be synonyms of their early traits. As if time is slumbering on vacation… “Extend your lovely beauty-time. Sunbathe in the sun of your silken breasts, and wait until good omen arrives. Later we will grow older. We have enough time to grow older after this day…”/ Another day will come, a womanly day songlike in gesture, lapis in greeting and in phrase. All things will be feminine outside the past. Water will flow from rock’s bosom. No dust, no drought, no defeat. And a dove will sleep in the afternoon in an abandoned combat tank if it doesn’t find a small nest in the lovers’ bed…