Horses I didn’t know I owned charged frothing from my chest today
I glanced in the mirror and you sprang from my eyes, fresh and still wet with love and sorrow
What treasure has been mine and I unheeding? What music has been playing and I not dancing?
There is a sky beyond sky and a sun beyond sun There is a river in my heart that was buried under
There is the possibility of joy upon joy, of jewels set in gold on sunken galleons covered in algae
There is a red azalea in the corner of my garden, brilliant, hidden under weeds I have let grow
— Mohja Kahf
About the poet
Mohja Kahf (b. 1967; pronounced [mohʒɑ kɑf]) is the author of a novel, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf (2006), a book of poetry, E-mails from Scheherazad (2003), as well as an academic book, Western Representations of the Muslim Woman (1999). Her second volume of poetry, Hagar Poems, was published by the University of Arkansas Press in 2016. Kahf is a professor of comparative literature and a member of the Middle East Studies Faculty at the University of Arkansas. Born in Damascus, Syria, Mohja Kahf grew up in the United States - specifically, in Utah, Indiana, and New Jersey. She is a member of the Syrian Nonviolence Movement, which was founded inside Syria in April 2011 by Syrian protesters dedicated to nonviolence.
Duration approx. 4’ 15”