Suheir Hammad - Def Jam Poetry

I uploaded this video because I think it's the best counterargument to the red haired woman in the Tyra Banks Show http://youtube.com/watch?v=TA9RGsmJLMs

-Suheir Hammad-
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.
sky where once was steel.
smoke where once was flesh.

fire in the city air and i feared for my sister's life in a way
never
before. and then, and now, i fear for the rest of us.

first, please god, let it be a mistake, the pilot's heart failed,
the
plane's engine died.
then please god, let it be a nightmare, wake me now.
please god, after the second plane, please, don't let it be anyone
who looks like my brothers.

i do not know how bad a life has to break in order to kill.
i have never been so hungry that i willed hunger
i have never been so angry as to want to control a gun over a pen.
not really.
even as a woman, as a palestinian, as a broken human being.
never this broken.

more than ever, i believe there is no difference.
the most privileged nation, most americans do not know the
difference
between indians, afghanis, syrians, muslims, sikhs, hindus.
more than ever, there is no difference.

• Category

  News & Politics

[ebonyrose316266]

this was like one of the best poems on Def Poetry

[mellowkat01]

the sad thing is that it wasn't even "terrorists" that are really responsible for 9/11.



[SuperTruthful]

You don't have to be ashamed we all learn and our eyes are opened.

[SuperTruthful]

That is the problem. If their own isn't here, and there, why are they in the military. Yes, one must make a choice. That is the issue with immigration in this country and around the world. When people immigrate here there is always home and no dedication to this country. And for those of us that are born and raised here we understand that and therein lies the problem.

[SistaWithRealHair]

LOVED this! 💙 💙 💙

[Nic Ulfson]

im ashamed to admit i never even contemplated what it must have been like for muslim men and women that served in the military when the planes hit... to be sent over to have to kill their own. potentially even kill family... beautiful poem though. thank you for waking me up.

[adelsafic]

Mashallah!

[Tenneh Dukuly]

Mashallah

[Instrumental187 .]

She's palestinian, motherfuckers better recognise.

[Lafi Aldakak]

So true meanings :-(

[imanjitgrewal]

She is so beautiful, and her words bring her beauty to life.

[Robert Rizzo]

Damn straight . FUCK WHITE PEOPLE !!!!