You’ve probably noticed by now I am hooked on Rafeef Ziadah. I want to write her a love letter….. words escape me. When I listen to her spoken words videos late at night images flash thru my reality (like in this video) and I revere her persistent impassioned strength …her exquisite, exclusively Palestinian, sumud.
Carry on the fight Carry on the fight Carry on the fight… but for Hadeel.. for Hadeel give me a moment of silence, give me a moment of silence NO give me a moment of sincere resistence, sincere resistence so we can hold on to the bit of dignity we have left, so we can hold on to the bit of dignity we have left , for Hadeel.
(Rafeef Ziadah is a member of the steering committee of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), also a founding member of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) promoting the BDS campaign in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand and an organizer of International Israeli Apartheid Week. Her debut CD Hadeel is dedicated to Palestinian youth.)
Great ,sad ,true poem. Rafeef is an excellent poet.
The kind, who is able to grasp hundreds of conflicting emotions ,and paint a vivid , clear picture with them ,using words like a colorful paint, using words like bullets.
There was a Polish young , very talented poet, Krzystof Baczynski.
He died fighting ,during Warsaw Uprising in 1944. One of his former professors said upon hearing the news about his death: ” we live in such a terrible times ,where we have to shoot at our enemy with diamonds”.
Great poets are like diamonds. Rare, shiny, beautiful.
We have to watch over them.
Thank you for posting this. Rafeef Ziadah is truly wonderful.
my love affair w/Rafeef’s words begin at nightime. i like to hear her voice when i am blogging. and i love this music accompanying her sound. can you hear her breath beating with the percussion? her inhale coming back at us with more strength building and building and no surrender just persistent resistance.