A Homeland is resurrected

I wrote his poem as a gift from my heart and conscious to the Palestinian people, especially for the Poetry Event and Mourning Dinner, Sunday September 18, 2011 in the Arab American Cultural Center, Houston, Texas, along with other poems honoring the martyrs of the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Syria.

A Homeland is resurrected

When Palestine rises from the ground

Hundreds of years ago, the honoraries of my nation

Used to bury new born females alive without any guilt

And then, tens of years ago, the honoraries of my nation

Agreed with the whole world to bury people and towns alive

They buried Jaffa, Haifa and Beer Al-Sabah alive

And also thousands of Palestinians, males and females

Some of them (the honoraries) were paid, some just ignored

Some went to conferences, where they negotiated and signed treaties

Some of them said nothing could be done

Some said they would resist, and they did, by marches and speeches

Some made it a slogan to accomplish other objectives

Some made it a business to make a living from

They sold it, buried it and cried or pretended to cry over it

They then took a deep sleep

They thought that the Palestine they buried had passed away

And whoever survived of its people were now refugees

But here is Palestine rising from its death bed

As Jesus raised the dead with God’s permission

And here are its people rising high

As the Prophet (Mohammad) traveled from it to the seventh heaven

The Palestinians today are writing their destiny by their own hands

No fear, no hesitation, no contracts and no mandate

The others forgot that the people they buried alive are

People who made history with their accomplishments

People who did what they did while under occupation

People who will make miracles when they regain freedom

People who became experts in resisting the invaders

People who will defeat the agents and the gangs

And after they become triumphant

They will go back to build civilizations

Meanwhile, our rulers are paying today the price of their deeds

As deeds are measured by accomplishments, but not by talking, nor by intending

Palestine did not die for a day, but that was what others thought

Its people have no competition in sacrificing

And here is the Palestinian hand, emerging from the ground, raising the flag

Saying to the world that they never stopped the heart beating

***

Poetry By: Tarif Youssef-Agha

Houston, Texas

September 2011

http://sites.google.com/site/tarifspoetry

لآخر 1432/ آذار 2011