New Poetry: Fady Joudah’s ‘Sunbird’

Words, we believe, are the flesh & bone of human solidarity. They are mutual assistance; they build and reinforce our networks of shared understanding. When people swing an axe at those shared meanings, or muffle them by insisting that these words are their opposites (hate instead of hope), they are taking aim not just at the meanings of these words, but also at the networks of solidarity.

And so, in these times, we need the poets who more fiercely imagine our shared and just universe. We are grateful for the poets who build. – ArabLit.

Sunbird

By Fady Joudah

I flit
from gleaming river
to glistening sea,

from all that we
to all that me,

fresh east to salty west,
southern sweet,

and northern free
there is a lake

between us,
and aquifers
for cactus

and basins
of anemone
from the river
to the sea,

from womb
to breath and one
with oneness

I be,
from the river
to the sea.

Fady Joudah îs a poet for our times & all. He is the author of five collections; most recently, Tethered to Stars. He has translated several collections of poetry from Arabic and is the co-editor and co-founder of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize.