Monday, January 11, 2010

Not Everyone HAs A Happy New Year to Look Forward To

Poem written by Samah Sabawai. She is a writer, playwright and poet from Gaza. I hope you are moved by it and feel compelled to pray for peace in Gaza and around the globe.
Blessings…

Gaza, Where Time Stood Still
By Samah Sabawi

Don’t tell us a year has passed…
We don’t measure our lives by this calendar
Time has stood still for us so long ago
Punctuated only by loss and grief
And the in between moments of quite reprieve
We don’t count on Christmas, nor Eid for cheer
We don’t fool ourselves with “happy new year”
No occasion is ever taken for granted,
When it comes to tomorrow, there are no certainties
Our yesterday is our today
Time is frozen here
And one calendar year
Will never contain our lives,
Our collective misery,
Our yearning for humanity
Don’t tell us a year has passed
Our clock stopped ticking when justice collapsed
Eclipsed by decades of repression
Hush… don’t speak of time
We have endured the absence of time
We don’t measure our lives by days like you
We measure our lives by the number of embraces
Our worth by a lover’s heartbeat
Our existence by our persistence
So, don’t tell us a year has passed….

I found this poem so heart rending. I find it so easy to be caught up with things in my life that seem difficult and start complaining. But I had a great Christmas, with family and good cheer and promise of a Happy New Year. I am so blessed!

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