Poetry is a powerful tool used by marginalized communities for centuries to express their sorrows, happiness, and unique experiences. Palestinian …
5 Must-Read Poetry Collections by Palestinians
Category: social justice
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5 Must-Read Poetry Collections by Palestinians
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OTHER/check OTHER if you care #poetry by jay
‣ Categorize
‣ Tabulate
‣ Collate
‣ Postulate
Your genius
Separate the best of the best
the last of the last
a census of class—race
to the top you go
We are a race—a class
indistinct
White when needed
to fill a seat
Arab when needed
in terror you seek
Irish—go there
Arab—go there
check other if you care
Irish/ Arab
shape-shifting myths/ lies
your hands are tied—
your mind wrapped tight
fists raised high
to star spangled height
but our erasure is documented
twisted around my spine
othered out loud/ in broad daylight
an occupation/ a confiscation
a colonization/ a genocide—
today/ tomorrow/ yesterday
we claim—
birthright to land
right of return
freedom to speak
and unbridled peace—
no census needed
when freedom is achieved.
.© Jay Mora-Shihadeh
Photo by Enayet Raheem on Unsplash
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WE’LL SEED OUR SOIL/ SCORCHED by BOMBS #poetry by jay
We walk
limbs exhausted
blown aside
like dust—
blown off our sockets
like broken branches
snapped off trunks
the olive trees
lost.
We live like creatures
fallen from darkened nights
twilight stopped
our lives twisted in the sunshine—
on our land
on our peace
our babes have been
hastened away by this Genocide.
Come my daughters
come my sons
father has rested
his innocence
tested—
the roots
jutting from our
blood-stained vines.
Lay down my loves
you are weary
rest thee heads.
The occupation forces
seized our time
we’ll seed our soil
scorched by bombs
flowers will grow
again
water will flow
again
you will see
again—
Do not forget
Do not look away
Do not lose your sight.
© Jay Mora-Shihadeh
#CeaseFireNowPhoto by Emad El Byed on Unsplash
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Lisa Suhair Majaj: Shroud of Light
If I must die, you must live to tell my story —Refaat Alareer
Lisa Suhair Majaj: Shroud of LightAnother beautiful poet lost to the genocide and vengeance, Free Gaza, Free Palestine 🇰🇼
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MISSION INCOMPLETE/ WHERE NOW to FIND YOUR PEACE? #poetry by jay
In the land of the holy and the hearts of the mad
the day has come to assess the damage and stop
pretending/ this experiment has not failed—
born in desperation/ burned by condemnation
alas’ it cracks/ feel the burn/ return your humanity
to the unborn/ to the dead children/ your madness stole
theirs/ unchained and fit on vengeance.
You convulse in disbelief at the reality/ feel your humanity leach
into the void that could have been your soul/ wretch at the release
of the crumbling walls/ wailing/ pulling at your hair—
a pit is left gaping / to conjure a heart/ sinister in mission
forgo the thought/ march in lockstep/ to face the calamity—
mission incomplete/ head spinning/ facade cracking
where now
to find your peace?© Jay Mora-Shihadeh
Photo by Jakob Rubner on Unsplash
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NEVER CEASE TO SPEAK/ UGLY TRUTH #poetry by jay
Hear truth. See truth. Speak truth Why is it that it’s taboo to speak truth
when the truth is ugly and vile?
Especially when you address the truth
of the dead- the people that have died
those that have left behind,
the affronts, the hurt, the stink,
your open wounds left to fester,
I find it indigestible, hard to swallow
the lump in my throat is
a rock, a pebble, a stone,
a pit falls from the rotten fruit
renders me a blind, deaf, muted
forgotten denial,
un-levied bank of a corrupted
fantastical life, you smile
strange, sinister, frozen
without a gasp, or a breath.
It’s unfathomable
the grace we give to the dead
those who’ve left before you
and left for you, the pain of their lashings,
as if the living were not worth living-
when it was their brutal marks, the outright
slashing of the heart, the attempted murder
of your soul, that has left you dangling here,
as if you were inanimate, without hurt
As is the day we change
As is the day we breathe
As is the air of release
The oxygen so sweet, so sweet
the outcome is in our favor,
unleash the silence, speak loud to truth
and back down never,
to vile compliance.
Never cease to speak truth to silence.
©Jay Mora-Shihadeh
Photo Credit- Pixabay
This poem was first written in response to some personal attacks I was experiencing, today this is again relevant, but on a much larger scale. #ceasefirenow
– Keep the humanity alive. Never lose the ability to see the people in the face of the atrocities. And, never cease to speak truth to the in-humanity.
Free Gaza! Stop the bleeding 🩸
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DEFIANCE #poetry by jay
I defy you!
For the land you stole
and the lies you told
I defy you!
For the lives you stole
many dreams untold
I defy you!
For the olive trees you’ve uprooted
and our waterways you’ve polluted
I defy you!
For the bulldozing of our homes
all our children’s broken bones
I defy you!
For all the mothers who are weeping
and all the children you have beaten
I defy you!
For the shooting, for the maiming
for your flag waving and your blaming
I defy you!
For your tanks and your guns
and your murderous son’s
I defy you!
For all the refugee’s
you’ve created and claim—
it’s all in the name
of your religion
in the name of your God
In the name of your State
you’ve bombed
and you’ve hated.
I defy You!
© Jay Mora-ShihadehFree Palestine 🇵🇸
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FRED HAMPTON JR- #artwork by jay
With all the focus on the academy award winning movie “Judas and the Black Messiah” I thought I would re-share my painting of Fred Hampton Jr. as part of the campaign to free Fred in Chicago in 1993.
Fred was a political prisoner wrongfully accused and imprisoned. He was a community organizer in Chicago with Uhuru.
see Wikipedia below-
Fred Hampton Jr. (born Alfred Johnson; December 29, 1969) is an American political activist, based in Chicago. He is the president and chairman of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee and the Black Panther Party Cubs.[1] He is the only child of Fred Hampton, the Black Panther Party leader assassinated by police in Chicago in December 1969, and his fiancée, now known as Akua Njeri.
Early life and education
Born in Chicago, Hampton is the son of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton and his fiancée, Deborah Johnson.[2] He was born 25 days after his father, at age 21, was assassinated by the Chicago police in a 1969 raid.[3]
His mother named him Alfred Johnson at birth. When he was ten years old, she had his name legally changed to “Fred Hampton Jr.”[4] She had already changed her own name to Akua Njeri, as she increasingly had identified with Africa in the years after Hampton Sr’s death. She wanted to drop what she and many in the Black Power movement considered “slave names”.
Hampton graduated from Tilden High School and sporadically studied journalism at Olive–Harvey College.[4]
Career
During the late 1980s, Hampton worked part-time as an auto mechanic while speaking at rallies and working as an organizer for the National People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (NPDUM), an interracial group. He also sold The Burning Spear, the newspaper associated with the affiliated African Socialist Party.[4]
He now serves as president and chairman of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee (POCC) and the Black Panther Party Cubs (BPPC), made up of descendants of Black Panthers. He continues to organize to bring people together across racial and class lines. He also is a spoken word artist and poet, and draws from his experiences with police and incarceration.
Legal issues
During his early adulthood Hampton was tried and acquitted on charges of armed robbery and murder. He and his supporters say that he was framed.[4]
In 1993, he was convicted of aggravated arson. The case involved the 1992 firebombing of a Korean menswear store and a Korean jewelry store in Chicago on Halsted Street. No persons were injured. The arson occurred in 1992, during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, a six-day period of protests and outrage in many African-American communities after the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers who were charged with excessive force in the beating of African-American motorist Rodney King during an arrest. The incident had been videotaped and widely viewed in television broadcasts.
Hampton and his supporters maintain his innocence, claiming he was framed in both cases.[4][5] During the trial, fire officials testified that the bottles that held the gasoline never broke, preventing more widescale damage.[6] According to Hampton’s supporters, the fingerprint expert for the Chicago Police Department Crime Lab testified that none of Hampton’s fingerprints was found on the bottles.[7] But photographs of his hands showed blisters that were evident when he was arrested.[4]
Hampton was sentenced to eighteen years in prison. He was paroled on September 14, 2001.[4]
In popular culture
- Hampton appeared in Michel Gondry‘s 2006 film Dave Chappelle’s Block Party.[8]
- His 1993 trial is referred to in Fall Out Boy‘s song “You’re Crashing, But You’re No Wave“.[9]
- He and his father are mentioned in the song “Behind Enemy Lines” by Dead Prez, as well as “Clap for the Killers” by Street Sweeper Social Club.
Hampton and his mother both worked as consultants on the film Judas and the Black Messiah (2021), a biopic about his father co-written and directed by Shaka King. It stars Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton Sr. and Lakeith Stanfield as William O’Neal, a young FBI informant who infiltrated the Panthers.[2] With nearly equal screen time in the film, both men were nominated for Academy Awards as Best Supporting Actor; Kaluuya won.
#Artist #Painter #PoliticalArt
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It’s Most Consequential
It’s most consequential
They say
This election
This vote
This moment
In history
As Marley sings
“Get up, stand up”
“Stand up for your rights”
Vote as if your life
depends on it.
It’s most consequential
They say
The divide is deep
Level the playing field
Take back your rights
We
Must
Never
Turn away
It’s most consequential
They say
This,
Derision
Division
Jingoism
Can not win
Vote with heart
Cast not a ballot
Only, for your life
Cast for others
To thrive
As one, only
one.
Vote with impunity
for humanity
It’s most consequential
They say.
©Jay Mora-Shihadeh
Photo by Element5 Digital from Pexels
#Poetry #Micropoem #Freeverse #Vote #SocialJustice
