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MWU! Articles Related to Poetry
October 15, 2006
GOD OF OCEANS, GOD OF EDGES
By Kyla Pasha Don't ask me to love you like that again, my love. - Faiz Ahmed Faiz So I'm standing here at the foot of the ocean wondering how you can call me by so many names. If I...
October 8, 2006
Incomplete Ablution
By Kyla Pasha Don't count the earth - there are plates under there that do the moving and insanity caused by gravity sends her spinning, my earth. Neither is it God. God watches with big uncountable eyes and nudges the...
October 1, 2006
Ramadan Red White and Blue
By Mohja Kahf Ramadan in the West ‘ll put hair on your chest No sleeping in, fool Boss here won’t invest in your Ramadan slouch It’s not your limp-wrist Saudi-soft Ramadan It’s Ramadan, Shaker school It’s Medina-meets-Sparta Get your Abu...
August 9, 2006
Good Girl
by Jennifer Ziska Zobair Cloistered for her own protection she is told as he roams free streaking gold and green in a waltz of pirated dominion. A bout of leapfrog rots into years. I swallow her choice; it is so...
February 24, 2006
Umma
By Sumeia M Umma...ummi...my mother, can you conceive your burden? A radiant belly swelling upward toward the sky, heavy with communion between yourself and your Adored One is but evidence of what you must bear. With each waning of...
February 8, 2006
Nibs of Steel
By Pamela K. Taylor Nusaiba wields her blade Defending the Prophet Left and right Thrusts her shield In front of him Exposing her own flesh Wards off enemy arrows Matching volleys Arrow for arrow With darts of her own...
February 7, 2006
Dreaming Ashura
By Leila Montour One night the sightless city cars zoom past the window while within my walls the songs of tribute chant their rhythms, like a marching army. Here: the American metropolis. The sickle moon sighs in the sky to...
January 10, 2006
Al Mujib (The Responsive)
By Pamela K. Taylor Let me be a wild camel Running in the desert Charging after my destiny Sand in my toes Wind in my hair Like Hajr I will seek out my God I will beseech Allah Fulfill Your...
October 3, 2005
Ramadan Kareem
By Mohja Kahf Ramadan is an annoying guest who comes too often and stays too long (“Him again? Isn’t it too early?”) but you can’t say so because he’s an old friend of the family, goes back a long way...
October 1, 2005
Dear relatives who have contacted me, or are thinking of contacting me, to make sure I haven't perished because of Rita
By Randa Jarrar I have not. Please stop calling at what is on my end of the world a reasonable hour, on yours, not. I am alive and well. Worry not! Now enough about me. How are you? Mama, you...
August 5, 2005
Palestine, My Left
My left hand is where I am Palestinian, my West Bank when I face Mecca.
June 21, 2005
Ode to the Last Mountain
Tonight while watching the fire on the mountain
Hafiz tapped my shoulder
And asked in silken English,
"Do you have wine?"
April 22, 2005
Decision
Painting by Stephanie Erdel By Fatima Husain If you were a devout Muslim When faced with a dilemma You could pray for Istikhara And sleep over your decision -- In the morning light all would be clearer. If you...
April 4, 2005
Socks 2. Methodology Boogaloo
"Socks" by Valerie Neufeld. Ink and colour pencil on paper By Jawad Ali A holy prophet stepped outside He was wearing mismatched socks He came upon a kitty cat Crouching behind the rocks “Aw, just look at you, you...
April 3, 2005
Silence
By Mirza A. Beg A decent person, I am. Regrets perhaps a few. I love my family, help my neighbors, support my country, even for wars of hubris, in my name. No protest from me, only silence....
March 29, 2005
Explore
I want to explore the woman as a concept, not just a body.
March 18, 2005
The Waiting Room
Dedicated to the hesitators who care about the issue but won't declare their support for today's Jum'ah.
March 8, 2005
I Deserve Nothing Less Than Glory
"Wallada" by Hend Al-Mansour (Henna silk screen on wool - 2004) By Walladah Al-Mustakfi (1001-1080 C.E) Walladah was a famed Andalusian poet, sponsor of literary salons, and the daughter of the Umayyad Caliph Al-Mustakfi (976-1025 C.E). For the sake...
Iddah
By Aisha Sharif It’s five in the morning and Uzair is beating down Asma’s front door. She’s still his wife. Where is your gun, Asma? No fooling around. Uzair’s wives welcomed Asma. They never felt burdened. This month has been...
I am Woman - Celebrate Me
I am Christian, Muslim and Jew
I bleed the same as you
I am Woman - Celebrate Me
I am Christian, Muslim and Jew
I bleed the same as you
February 10, 2005
Black Is the Color of Muharram
O my Abbas!, O my Ali Asghar! O my Husain!
dripping black blood like black gold
that energizes the rusty dead soul
February 7, 2005
Oh Allah
you are in me
i am in you
but what does that mean?
January 12, 2005
Hagar in the Valley
It is hard to understand the will of God
Hard when the child is hoarse with thirst
and makes noises like a hurt animal
and what has he done to offend God?
November 8, 2004
Progeny
The last Night of Power
when heaven, pregnant
with consonants, gasped
accent marks and gave birth.
October 26, 2004
Ramadan
Prayers given
and later friends and family
mill around, some content
others tired, but all happy
on this day of Ramadan
October 25, 2004
Anticipation
This November I will vote to have my opinion counted
October 13, 2004
Enough!
women and dogs not allowed
i wanna bruce lee their bullshit
which is mine too
October 9, 2004
God Blesses America, the World America Curses
Taking pride
In America's refusal to uncover lies
Proclaiming love it or leave it
But loving it so little
That we refuse to demand excellence of it
September 30, 2004
Why America Needs Rumi
Perhaps it is somewhat surprising then that one of America’s most widely read and best selling poets has been a devout Muslim mystic born eight centuries ago in Afghanistan – Maulana Jelaluddin Rumi.
September 29, 2004
Dawn
Plumes of smoke and wisps of fire
Rise from ashen domes and spires.
When will this horrible civil war end?
When will the wounds of history mend?
September 27, 2004
For The Mothers' Eyes Only
But you were in a hurry
And they needed their martyr!
And so I lost my sunshine
June 30, 2004
Rasheed – Right-Minded
Ar-Rashid, oil on canvas, by Hafeez By Pamela Taylor If our minds are all to the Right Are we Right Minded? Or perhaps we should lean to the Left? Is a Muslim to be a Democrat, or a Republican?...
June 14, 2004
God’s Command to Angels
Why do they disconnect the worshippers from me?
I do not need priests to parse my words for me.
June 5, 2004
Postlude
I am that breeze, escaping,
clutched in my brazen grasp,
a few strands of precious hair. . .
May 14, 2004
Wandering
We will
Watch the stars mirror our souls
Twisted, faceted, demented, star-struck
Phantom winds whispering false promises
Longing, seeking star to star
For the one to reveal a true face
April 30, 2004
Falluja
The mother of Iraqi boy Mostapha Fadhl, 6, cries at his coffin before a funeral procession in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April 29, 2004. Mostapha Fadhl and Mostapha Salah, 7, both refugees from Fallujah, were killed during a shootout between...
April 13, 2004
Without you
Without you
I was the heart with no beat
Fiercely drumming
By day and night
A beat that did not rise
March 31, 2004
Only One Reality
An-Nur (The Light). Oil on canvas, by Hafeez By Bruncha "Sakeena" Milaszewski In the vastness of eternity, in all its great expanse, Only one reality knew its purpose… Ya Khabir, Ya Allah In the darkness of the void, depth...
March 16, 2004
They Changed My God
We roamed around together, holding hands. We collected colored feathers, glorious flowers and chased delicate butterflies.
March 4, 2004
A Poem on India, Pakistan Nuclear Tests
Don't say we did not know how the death entered our homes.
February 23, 2004
Indigo Fields
With your tender hands
You gave me colors that will not fade - an everlasting blush
January 30, 2004
The thirst has lasted too long
Raihana Yusufali The thirst has lasted too long I came upon a stream, like no other stream Clear water swirled and flowed, joined and separated intimately in an eternal dance with graceful ribbons of light - it felt like...
January 16, 2004
Western Minaret
By Kelly Crosby Has the light gone out in the Muslim world? Is it too late? Much too late to resurrect our glorious past? Or is such futile? Every people, every empire has its chance to shine And, oh,...
December 13, 2003
Fadwa Tuqan: In Her Country’s Embrace (1917-2003)
Enough for me to die on her earth
be buried in her
to melt and vanish into her soil
then sprout forth as a flower
December 10, 2003
Palestinians Do Not Exist
Under a banner that read Never Again
A troubled people sought a space
An uninhabited desert
Rocky soil, hilly terrain
Home to no one
An empty place
December 5, 2003
A Woman’s Ballad
Today is her day oh dear woman who sighs
At night she bears angry hands, voices that cry
At dawn comes the calling, she wakes in disguise
Bent down in prostration, her soul comes to fly
December 1, 2003
Little Mosque Poems
In my little mosque
there is no room for me
to pray. I am
turned away faithfully
five
times a day.
My little mosque:
so meager
in resources, yet
so eager
to turn away
a woman
or a stranger.
November 24, 2003
End-Game
mentally cuckoo
how to rectify seeing
disparity of
islam and muslims
"Join Islam! Community!"
until you come close
November 20, 2003
A Prayer
The ablution...wudu
Walking into the bathroom, already feeling the pull that comes after a long dry spell...
A cold winter’s night, saving on the heating bill, heater on low
March 31, 2003
Nothing But Iraq
I remember Al Sayyab, screaming to the Gulf in vain: Iraq, Iraq, Nothing But Iraq… And no one answers except an echo. *I remember Al Sayyab…In this Sumerian Space A female overcame the sterility of the galaxy, And bequeathed us both the land and exile. I remember Al Sayyab… Poetry is born in Iraq,
Then become an Iraqi, so that you may become a poet my friend!
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