Poem A Day - Academy of American Poets @POETSorg Mosab Abu Toha's [You were so small in my hands]

Academy of American Poets

@POETSorg

[You were so small in my hands]

Mosab Abu Toha

You were so small in my hands
no shrapnel could hit you,
but the dust and
smoke of the bomb
rushed into your lungs.
No need for any gauze.
They just closed your eyes.
No need for any shroud.
You were already
in your swaddle blanket.

Copyright © 2025 by Mosab Abu Toha. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on March 13, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.

@mosababutoha

#PoemADay

 

 

Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet and founder of the Edward Said Library, Gaza’s only English-language library. He is a former visiting poet at Harvard’s department of comparative literature. Photo credit: Mohamed Mehdy

 poems

Year	Title
2025	[You were so small in my hands]
2025	[Gaza has become a funeral home]
2022	Discoveries
2022	Leaving Childhood Behind
2022	What is Home?
2022	Displaced
2022	Mouth Still Open

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

@gazamom

Palestine Writes [in America] 2023!

 "Palestinians are an ancient indigenous people from a fabled and tortured land. No matter who holds the guns and power over our homeland, our nation is deeply rooted in its soil, which cradles our collective memory, as it does the bones of our ancestors. All of our traditions, our stories, folklore, poetry, culinary forms, superstitions, traditional clothing, architecture, art, and cultural habits were born in that singular patch of earth over the span of millennia. Palestine Writes exists as an artistic and literary space to hold dear and celebrate and share the magnificence of Palestine’s indigenous heritage, particularly as powerful forces work tirelessly to erase us."    https://palestinewrites.org/

Palestine Writes: On circles, keys, and joy as resistance

As a former political prisoner in Egypt, and dissident writer in exile, Palestinian culture and literature have inspired and shaped my work. When I attended the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, my heart came full circle.... READ MORE  

 

Worldmaking in action at Palestine Writes festival

Despite the incessant efforts of the pro-Israel lobby to censor Palestinians and their allies, the festival was a testament to the strength of transnational solidarity between those fighting for liberation around the world, writes Randa Abdel-Fattah... READ MORE

 

 

PRESS RELEASE:

Palestine Writes Was An Immense Moment of Indigenous Agency and Togetherness

 

The 2023 Palestine Writes Literature Festival wrapped up on Sunday, September 24 following five joyful days of Palestinian heritage, stories, art, music, dance, crafts, books, scholarship, food, photography, 123 speakers,  sessions, and a sold out crowd of over 1500 registered in-person attendees, as well as 4890 virtual attendees on Friday....  READ MORE

 

PALESTINE WRITES 2023 Literature Festival September 22-24 University of Pennsylvania Lenni-Lenape Homeland, Turtle Island*

 

The festival is set to take place at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, on the homeland of the Lenni Lenape Nation of Turtle Island*.

The first-ever Palestine Writes festival, in 2020, was digital, while the upcoming 2023 iteration will be a primarily in-person event. 

According to organizers, the festival is set to include “panel discussions, presentations, book readings, workshops, music, dance, food, oral storytelling, an art exhibit, photography, and continuous children’s programming.”

The festival, the only North American literature festival dedicated to celebrating and promoting cultural productions of Palestinian writers and artists, was “born from the pervasive exclusion from or tokenization of Palestinian voices in mainstream literary institutions,” and aims to bring “Palestinian cultural workers from all parts of Historic Palestine and our exiled Diaspora together with peers from other marginalized groups in the United States.”

A program is forthcoming at the Palestine Writes website. You can also follow them on Twitter at @PalestineWrites.

"Palestinians are an ancient indigenous people from a fabled and tortured land. No matter who holds the guns and power over our homeland, our nation is deeply rooted in its soil, which cradles our collective memory, as it does the bones of our ancestors. All of our traditions, our stories, folklore, poetry, culinary forms, superstitions, traditional clothing, architecture, art, and cultural habits were born in that singular patch of earth over the span of millennia. Palestine Writes exists as an artistic and literary space to hold dear and celebrate and share the magnificence of Palestine’s indigenous heritage, particularly as powerful forces work tirelessly to erase us."   AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE ORIGINAL LINK TO READ and THINK IN FULL ->  https://palestinewrites.org/

*Turtle Island is a First Peoples' name for Earth or North America. The name is based on a creation story common to several early ancestors & indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of North America.

This Week in Palestine Artist of the Month: Storyteller Denise Asaad In Her Own Words

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

http://www.thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id=4183&ed=226&edid=226 

A Palestinian artist originally from the destroyed village of Qisariyah in historic Palestine

I was born in Nazareth. Before I turned two, my family moved to Haifa, where I now reside with my husband and children. Ever since I was a child I wanted to become a doctor (as is expected of a good student), but I ended up studying electrical engineering. I worked in health equipment maintenance for nine years at Al Karmel Hospital in Haifa.

In 1984, my first son, Amir, was born. He went into brain paralysis as a result of a medical mistake and was in intensive care for six weeks. During his time at the hospital the doctors asked me to start speaking to him, and since I didn’t know how to speak to someone who wasn’t aware, I found myself telling him stories my father used to tell me, for he found that the best way to keep me quiet. Amir’s existence led me to discover the magic of stories and the connections forged through them.

Later I discovered that my school-principal, conservative father had been a storyteller and had evidently passed that passion on to me. My father’s gravestone reads “For the love of stories, Qisariyah, and my country.”

After Amir was born I left my work at the hospital and went back to school because my time with him made me realise the scarcity of local children’s literature. I received both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in children’s literature and early childhood education from the University of Haifa. My master’s thesis was about the catastrophe facing children’s literature in Palestine. As I was planning to begin studying for my PhD, I met the Egyptian director Hasan Al Jartly at a storytelling workshop in Amman. His faith in my storytelling was the main reason behind quitting school and taking my talent to the next level.

My journey into the world of stories truly began in 2004. I travelled everywhere - from Palestine to England, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, South Africa, and France - to collect children’s stories and transport them to children and adults all over the country through actual storytelling, letters, and video conferencing (especially for children in Gaza). I also worked as a storytelling trainer to people of all ages, including parents, students, librarians, and others.

In addition to collecting stories, I participate in events such as conferences on children’s literature and cultural festivals. One memorable festival was in Jordan where I participated as a storyteller and accompanied Kamal Khalil, a renowned musician and performer.

My other more recent projects include filming a story for the documentary “Golden Pomegranate,” by director Ghada Altirawi (which was also accompanied by sign language interpretation). Moreover, I have been launching workshops to empower and support women, youth, and children with special needs. My most memorable and heart-warming experiences were two, one with refugee youth in Amman, where we worked on storytelling as a way to discover their identity, creativity, and power. I met the same group nine years later while filming a documentary, and to my cheerful surprise I found them retelling my stories. The experience made me feel as though I had left something of myself with those people, and they had kept and cherished it.

My second beautiful experience was in Tunisia, where I worked with parents of disabled children as part of a workshop launched by the Almoro’a organisation entitled “Hikawati Hiyakati.” During the workshop I shared my story as a mother of a disabled child, and ended up weaving painful, hopeful, and rich masterpieces with these women, who opened up about their own love and suffering. The workshop’s other outcome was a gorgeous book in Arabic and French, also entitled Hikawati Hiyakati, gathering those stories.

 See PDF www.thisweekinpalestine.com/i189/pdfs/article/aotm.pdf