On This Earth There Is That Which

I Thought Poetry Could Change Everything, Could Change History And Could Humanize, And I Think That The Illusion Is Very Necessary To Push Poets To Be Involved And To Believe, But Now I Think That Poetry Changes Only The Poet.

I've Built My Homeland, I've Even Founded My State - In My Language.

A Person Can Only Be Born In One Place. However, He May Die Several Times Elsewhere: In The Exiles And Prisons, And In A Homeland Transformed By The Occupation And Oppression Into A Nightmare.

Sometimes I Feel As If I Am Read Before I Write. When I Write A Poem About My Mother, Palestinians Think My Mother Is A Symbol For Palestine. But I Write As A Poet, And My Mother Is My Mother. She's Not A Symbol.

And I Tell Myself, A Moon Will Rise From My Darkness.