Posted in General Interest, Imen Benyoub, Peace & Justice, poem, Video

You who lights candles . . . Salam to you . . .

Posted on by The Bardo Group Beguines

file261336842312-1Bitter is this dawn that no longer comes
With the prayer of doves on rooftops
And your face

This treacherous sky above your head
The colour of lead and flame
These forests of stars smothered
In the blinding smoke

These banners ripping the air around you
Woven of cries
These fields of ruins and debris
Where you stand shivering
In the nudity of daylight

You, a lonely prophet in this besieged space
Who listens to the laments of stones
And writes his testament
With tears and blood

You, who lights candles
For the passing caravans of martyrs
And falls asleep with the night

Salam to you

. . . this Ā poem . . . in my mind i wrote it for a friend in Gaza . . . i haven’t heard from him in weeks now . . .Ā 

– Imen Benyoub
Ā© 2014, poem, All rights reserved; photograph courtesy of morgueFile

pictureIMEN BENYOUB ~ is a multilingual, multi-talented writer, poet, and artist from Guelma, Algeria. Imen currently lives in East Jerusalem. She is a frequent guest here onĀ The Bardo Group blogĀ and withĀ On the Plum Tree and Plum Tree Books Facebook pageĀ as well.

~

ALICE WALKER (b. 1944), American activist and Pulitzer Prize winning author:

Not with a bang … but with a whimper.

Peace: It’s a decision.

Author:

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11 thoughts on “You who lights candles . . . Salam to you . . .”

  4. This is a very special piece and very fine poetry, Imen. It has impressed me greatly, not least of all because the West Bank and the children of Gaza are constantly on our minds. I think the Israeli’s are suffering from a dangerous form of blindness.

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