THE OLIVE TREE #poetry by jay

To honor my Palestinian heritage and to all the people of Gaza 
and Palestinian people everywhere, a beautiful poem today 
by Tawfiq Zayyad-


THE OLIVE TREE
 by, Tawfiq Zayyad

 Because I do not knit wool*
 Because I am always hunted
 And my house is always raided.
 Because I cannot own a piece of paper,
 I shall carve my memoirs
 On the home yard olive tree.

 I shall carve bitter reflections,
 Scenes of love and yearnings,
For my stolen orange grove
And the lost tombs of my dead.

I shall carve all my strivings
For the sake of remembrance
For the time when I’ll drown them
In the avalanche of triumph

I shall carve the serial number
Of every stolen piece of land
The place of my village on the map
And the blown up houses,
And the uprooted trees
 And every bloom that was crushed
 And all the names of the experts in torture
 The names of the prisons…..

 I shall carve dedications
 To memories threading down to eternity
 To the blooded soil of Deir Yasin
 And Kufur Qassem.
 I shall carve the sun’s beckoning
 And the moon’s whisperings
 And what a skylark recalls
 At a love deserted well.

 For the sake of remembrance,
 I shall continue to carve
 All the chapters of my tragedy
 And all the stages of Al- Nakbah
 On the home yard olive tree!

originally posted on my blog April 5th, 2022, to celebrate Arab-American Heritage month.