MER Article first writing since I there have been no words. i have not written one word. no poetry in the ashes south of canal street. no prose in the refrigerated trucks driving debris and dna. not one word. today is a week, and seven is of heavens, gods, science. evident out my kitchen window is an abstract reality. Suheir Hammad • 6 min read
MER Article Disbeliever In January 1998, unidentified gunmen entered a movie theater and small mosque near Algiers and massacred 120 men, women and children. By the hunger of the children of Iraq By the sound of frantic running in Kosovo By the swollen bodies in a river in Rwanda and Afghani women and the writers of Algie Mohja Kahf • 1 min read
MER Article Poetry HAJAR IN AMERICA We came over together I spoke no English He had a mission: grad school, then it’s back to save the masses Here I am now with the baby on my hip, alone in Newark, on foot, looking for milk at the all-night Exxon I hear he’s marrying her, the teaching assistant with the frosted hai Mohja Kahf • 1 min read
MER Article There Or here, in early morning, how early you ask and I say let’s get on with the day, a conversation is always a political thing because it involves two entities and the possibility of death interrupting it is always real, always there, and it could happen here, any time, by the stairs, the fountains, t Etel Adnan • 2 min read
MER Article Yehezkel Kedmi Being served a soda or some fresh nuts by an unassuming man in the small, crowded kiosk across from Jerusalem’s central bus station, it would be hard to know that you were in the presence of one of the most powerful and original Hebrew poetic voices alive. The story of this poet, Yehezkel Kedmi, is Ammiel Alcalay • 2 min read
'Abd al-Hadi Fights the Big Superpower Never in his life Did he read or write. Never did he fell a tree Or stab a cow. Never did he talk about the New York Times Behind its back. Never did he raise his voice to anyone Except to say: “Welcome! Tafaddal! By God, I won’t take no for an answer!” And in spite of all this? His case is hopeles Taha Muhammad Ali • 1 min read
MER Article Arab Apocalypse As the twentieth century comes to a close, the voice of Etel Adnan continues to speak the prophetic visions of legendary women shut out by men at history’s dawn. In the tradition of Zarqa’ al-Yamama of pre-Islamic Arabia, and of Cassandra in Greek mythology, Adnan’s poetic premonitions and indignant Etel Adnan • 3 min read
MER Article Poems Hey Jeep, Hey Jeep Sami Shalom Chetrit 1. Eight kids in an army jeep Eight soldiers, one major: eight kids and one minor 2. Hey Jeep, Hey Jeep [1] 3. And his son Ishmael was thirteen years old at the cutting of his uncircumcised flesh. 4. And eight of his sons in the army jeep and his son cri Erez Bitton, Shelley Elkayam, Sami Shalom Chetrit • 3 min read
MER Article "Suddenly I Can't Hold My Head Up" Dan Almagor personifies Israeli popular culture of the post-1948 period. He is the master lyricist of the modern Hebrew song, with over 600 compositions and 300 translations to his credit. His songs have been performed on many official and semi-official occasions, and he has composed for the Israel Joel Beinin • 4 min read
MER Article Who's Afraid of Mahmoud Darwish? Under normal circumstances, Arabic literature of any kind passes virtually unnoticed in Israel, despite the fact that a few of the most well-known contemporary Arab writers are Israeli citizens. But the publication of “Those Who Pass Between Fleeting Words,” a poem by Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinia Ammiel Alcalay • 9 min read
MER Article Those Who Pass Between Fleeting Words O those who pass between fleeting words Carry your names, and be gone Rid our time of your hours, and be gone Steal what you will from the blueness of the sea and the sand of memory Take what pictures you will, so that you understand That which you never will: How a stone from our land builds the ce Mahmoud Darwish • 2 min read
MER Article Birth (Al-Maulid) BIRTH (AL-MAULID) Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Majdhoub (1921-1982) Hand on the Prophet, God Help and support me with him who speaks for the people on Judgment Day -- with him who drinks pure water from al-Kauthar, Paradise river. On the square’s other side clear light spreads a rainbow of hope and jo Muhammad al-Mahdi al-Majdhoub • 2 min read
