“Depth of Kinship”: Zeina Azzam’s Some Things Never Leave You BOOK REVIEW by Deema K. Shehabi

 

Photo of the author by Jeff Norman / ZeinaAzzam.com

Book Review

September 10, 2024

by  Deema K. Shehabi  -Deema K. Shehabi is a poet and editor. Her first book, Thirteen Departures from the Moon

In Zeina Azzam’s mesmerizing collection of poems Some Things Never Leave You (Tiger Bark Press, 2023), tenderness means gazing directly at what both cuts and fills you. A universal factor of human existence is the need to enter an expressive space, which distills moments from one’s life into essences. Whether it’s standing at a parent’s deathbed wondering when the next reunion with a dying beloved will be or rejoicing at a child’s ability to enunciate Arabic letters despite truncation from the foundational homeland (Palestine), Azzam deftly parses the threshold of joys and losses and renders them in a breathless lyricism.

In one of the seminal poems in the collection, “You Could Tell Yourself,” Azzam invites the reader into ... READ MORE  https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/book-reviews/depth-kinship-zeina-azzams-some-things-never-leave-you-deema-k-shehabi

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Dismantling the culture of silence... "On Remembrance: When Words Become Our Strength"

@gazamom

Zeina Azzam, Alexandria’s poet laureate, whose parents fled Palestine, creates potent art from the devastation in Gaza- with her poem "Write My Name"

Zeina Azzam, the 2022 Poet
Laureate for the city of Alexandria, Virginia. (Courtesy, City of Alexandria/Jeff Norman)

April 14, 2024

Alexandria Poet Laureate Zeina Azzam first found it difficult to write about Palestine amid the ongoing conflict that started last October.

Now, her words about the children of Gaza have been translated into five languages and recited everywhere, from senators’ offices to churches, from vigils to protests.

Azzam says she was moved to pen the poem “Write My Name” after reading a CNN report about parents in Gaza who had resorted to writing their children’s names on their legs to help identify them should they or their children be killed.

More than 12,300 children in Gaza have been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said that more children have been killed in Gaza in the last four months than children killed in the last four years of war globally...   READ MORE   https://patabook.com/news/2024/04/14/alexandrias-poet-laureate-whose-parents-fled-palestine-creates-potent-art-from-the-devastation-in-gaza/ 

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

 

2023 Arab American news: Palestinian Cry from Gaza, ‘Write My Name,’ Goes Viral in Poem by Palestinian American

https://www.arabamerica.com/palestinian-cry-from-gaza-write-my-name-goes-viral-in-poem-by-palestinian-american/

 

Zeina Azzam's poem- Write My Name

 

Write my name on my leg, Mama

Use the black permanent marker

with the ink that doesn’t bleed

if it gets wet, the one that doesn’t melt

if it’s exposed to heat

 

Write my name on my leg, Mama

Make the lines thick and clear

Add your special flourishes

so I can take comfort in seeing

my mama’s handwriting when I go to sleep

 

Write my name on my leg, Mama

and on the legs of my sisters and brothers

This way we will belong together

This way we will be known

as your children

 

Write my name on my leg, Mama

and please write your name

and Baba’s name on your legs, too

so we will be remembered

as a family

 

Write my name on my leg, Mama

Don’t add any numbers

like when I was born or the address of our home

I don’t want the world to list me as a number

I have a name and I am not a number

 

Write my name on my leg, Mama

When the bomb hits our house

When the walls crush our skulls and bones

our legs will tell our story, how

there was nowhere for us to run

 

—Zeina Azzam

Nothing- a poem by Ahmed Dremly of Gaza Palestine

 https://wearenotnumbers.org/nothing/

November 27, 2023

Artist unknown. Courtesy the Palestine Poster Project Archives.

Nothing

Ahmed Dremly

Gaza Strip

 

 

I’m still breathing

but that is not enough

to feel alive.

 

I lost my loved ones.

I lost my power, hope, dreams,

and my last tears.

 

Nothing can express

the pain of losing the people

who were a main part of my life.

 

Nothing can erase

the last look at them

from my eyes.

 

Nothing can stop

replaying our memories

before Israel took them away.

 

And nothing

can let me imagine

moving forward with my life

after them.

 

Editor‘s Note: Ahmed Dremly is from Gaza City. Through its bombing, Israel killed his best friend, nine of his cousins, an uncle, and other friends and family members who are still under the rubble.

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Mentor: Zeina Azzam

 

The mission of WANN is to create a new generation of Palestinian writers and thinkers who can bring together a profound change to the Palestinian cause to get their voices heard. WANN provides the world with direct access to the Palestinian narrative without any restrictions and without foreign intermediaries speaking on behalf of the Palestinians. https://wearenotnumbers.org/

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES or quotes IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]  

Zeina Azzam poem- Write My Name....

فلسطين

Write my name on my leg, Mama

Use the black permanent marker

with the ink that doesn’t bleed

if it gets wet, the one that doesn’t melt

if it’s exposed to heat

 

Write my name on my leg, Mama

Make the lines thick and clear

Add your special flourishes

so I can take comfort in seeing

my mama’s handwriting when I go to sleep

 

Write my name on my leg, Mama

and on the legs of my sisters and brothers

This way we will belong together

This way we will be known

as your children

 

Write my name on my leg, Mama

and please write your name

and Baba’s name on your legs, too

so we will be remembered

as a family

 

Write my name on my leg, Mama

Don’t add any numbers

like when I was born or the address of our home

I don’t want the world to list me as a number

I have a name and I am not a number

 

Write my name on my leg, Mama

When the bomb hits our house

When the walls crush our skulls and bones

our legs will tell our story, how

there was nowhere for us to run

 

—Zeina Azzam