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by Sharon Grimes, W A M M
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Poems from Guantánamo, published by the University of Iowa Press in 2007, demonstrates the desperation of prisoners held by the United States at the Guantánamo Bay prison. The Pentagon fought publication of the poems, but thanks to the pro bono efforts of lawyers for the detainees, 22 poems were approved for publication. They were written by 17 detainees, 6 of whom have since been released to their home countries.
Prisoners turned to poetry writing to preserve their sanity in the face inhumane conditions, isolation, and mistreatment, and never expected their poems to be published. During the first year of their imprisonment they didn’t have paper or pens and pencils, so they used pebbles or toothpaste to write poems on Styrofoam cups; most of those poems were destroyed.
The first poems the lawyers submitted to the Pentagon for review were originally not considered classified. But when the Pentagon learned the poems were to be published, they censored them, classifying them as “special risk” because of the “content and format.” If these are the poems the Pentagon approved for publication, we can only imagine how disturbing the suppressed poems are.
To read more about the poetry of Guantánamo prisoners, see “Verses of Suffering” in the fall 2007 issue of Amnesty International magazine online.
The poems below were reprinted by permission of University of Iowa Press. Copyright 2007.
Is It True?
Osama Abu Kabir
Is it true that the grass grows again
after rain?
Is it true that the flowers will rise up
in the Spring?
Is it true that birds will migrate home again?
Is it true that the salmon swim back up
their stream?
It is true. This is true. These are all miracles.
But is it true that one day we’ll leave
Guantánamo Bay?
Is it true that one day we’ll go back
to our homes?
I sail in my dreams. I am dreaming of home.
To be with my children, each one part of me;
To be with my wife and the ones I love;
To be with my parents,
my world’s tenderest hearts.
I dream to be home, to be free from this cage.
But do you hear me, oh Judge,
do you hear me at all?
We are innocent, here,
we’ve committed no crime.
Set me free, set us free, if anywhere still
Justice and compassion remain in this world!
Humiliated in the Shackles
Sami al Haj
When I heard pigeons cooing in the trees,
Hot tears covered my face.
When the lark chirped, my thoughts composed
A message for my son.
Mohammad, I am afflicted.
In my despair, I have no one but Allah for comfort.
The oppressors are playing with me,
As they move freely about the world.
They ask me to spy on my countrymen,
Claiming it would be a good deed.
They offer me money and land,
And freedom to go where I please.
Their temptations seize
My attention like lightning in the sky.
But their gift is an evil snake,
Carrying hypocrisy in its mouth like venom.
They have monuments to liberty
And freedom of opinion, which is well and good.
But I explained to them that Architecture
is not justice.
America, you ride on the backs of orphans,
And terrorize them daily.
Bush, beware.
The world recognizes an arrogant liar.
To Allah I direct my grievance and my tears.
I am homesick and oppressed.
Mohammad, do not forget me.
Support the cause of your father, a God-fearing man.
I was humiliated in the shackles.
How can I now compose verses?
How can I now write?
After the shackles and the nights and
the suffering and the tears,
How can I write poetry?
My soul is like a roiling sea, stirred by anguish,
Violent with passion.
I am captive, but the crimes are my captors’.
I am overwhelmed with apprehension.
Lord, unite me with my son Mohammad.
Lord, grant success to the righteous. ws |
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Word UP
The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.
—Alexander Solzhenitsyn
The only foes that threaten America are the enemies at home, and these are ignorance, superstition and incompetence.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915), American editor, publisher and writer
My message . . . is that not only are these sanctions not working, but because of their profound inhumanity, they are counterproductive to their stated purpose and while Gaza is not yet an entity populated by people hostile to their neighbor, it inevitably will be if the current approach of collective punitive sanctions continues.
—Senior United nations official, John Ging, Gaza’s director of operations for the refugee agency UNRWA, whose agency is responsible for 70 per cent of Gaza’s 1.5 million population.
Mr. Ging’s message was reinforced by a letter warning of the “increasingly desperate situation” in Gaza from major aid agencies published in the Independent newspaper where he said 649 Palestinians had been killed this year, including 63 children. The figure includes more than 330 killed in internal fighting.
Mr. Ging added that UNRWA was unable to provide more than 61 per cent of the necessary calories to refugees. “At present we do not have sufficient funding to provide just one high nutrient biscuit to 200,000 children in UN schools.” The Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights says that 11 patients have died since last month because their treatment was blocked or delayed. At least 800 more are being denied treatment abroad.
(11/23/07, The Independent)
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© 2007/2008 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete December 2007/January 2008 Index - click here
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