Leaving this one for the reader to interpret…
The Followers
“I am the King of the Castle”
He stood atop and felt smug and good
Macbeth, Oblivious to the moving woods
“I am great- I reached the top of the hill!”
Cried Jack as Jill leaned into him
“Look on my works and despair!” Ozymandias sneered
The cracks on his visage beginning to appear…
And Macbeth’s soldiers sang along with him.
The townsmen smiled at Jack. Continue reading
This one is not mine.
The beautiful words of a friend of mine (who prefers to remain anonymous). So beautiful- I had to share.
“Listening to Yann Tiersen’s amazing soundtrack to Amelie. (A movie I am yet to see.)
And I just realised how utterly absurd it is to ever think one can’t change the world.
If my eye went blind it would change the whole experience of my life.
If my feet were no longer usable everything would be different.
Perhaps in the world ‘China’ is a foot and ‘America’ an eye.
The world is very big, there are so many people.
Perhaps in the world I am only as small as an eyelash. Perhaps.
But isn’t it bothersome when an eyelash gets in your eye? Doesn’t it stay on your mind? Don’t you think of ways to get rid of it? Roll your eyeball around or get someone to have a look. Doesn’t it change your behaviour? Continue reading
On the 23rd December 2012, aircraft of the Syrian regime bombed a bakery in Halfaya, Hama, outside of which civilians had queued to buy some bread. 94 civilians were killed. It was not the first time a bakery was bombed- several before had been shelled in Aleppo and across the country, resulting in atrocious massacres Continue reading
It’s difficult to imagine how we might react to conflict. To bombs, to murder, to violence, to seeing our loved one’s and places to which we are attached destroyed.
Here is one such imagining… Continue reading
Working on collating human rights violations within Syria is not easy. The daily videos which arrive at the inbox and the feelings they induce are difficult to describe. Sometimes you learn to become immune to them or you ignore them, and at other times, you push yourself to watch them… and it is just horrific.
One day as I sat at my desk, someone in the office clicked on a video that had arrived. And although I did not see anything, I heard something else very clearly. It was the sound of a human… yet it was almost inhumane. It was worse than howling; beyond imagination or perception. It shook me to my core. And it made me write the below.
I don’t know whether this is poetry or prose. It just came tumbling out. But read it aloud with expression if you really want to feel it. Continue reading
Looking through my archives, and found this. Written earlier in the year. It was interesting to remember how I was feeling at that time, and whether I feel the same way now. Unruly Child, ah my Unruly Child.. anyone want to guess what the unruly child is? Continue reading
This is not peaceful poetry. This is a response to the way the Syrian regime flaunts its power, dances with it, stripping humanity from the human, dignity from the dignified, rising arrogant, rearing its head like a snake, asking… who will dare challenge? Written on 19/10/2012, the day Wasim al-Hasan was assasinated in Lebanon. Because the Syrian regime does not only dance to its own tune in its country, but on neighbourly soil as well. Continue reading
