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    • BALCONY ON THE MOON: Coming of Age in Palestine (BOOK -- FSG-Macmillan 2016)
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    • Poem 1: A POEM MADE OF WATER
    • Poem 2: GENEROUS
    • Poem 3: PALESTINE
    • Poem 4: DIVERSITY
    • Poem 5: STIRRINGS
    • Poem 6: ALPHABETS OF MY HEART
    • Poem 7: CURFEW
    • Poem 8: DREAMING NO ABBREVIATION
    • Poem 9: PEN AND PAPER
    • Poem 10: A POEM MADE OF BREAD (words and voice)
    • Poem 11: SCRIBBLES ON THE POVERTY LINE (English and Arabic)
    • (12) WHEN PALESTINE IS FREE I WILL . . . (English and Arabic)
    • (13) A PEOPLE AND A POET, essay about Mahmoud Darwish
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A Poem Made of Water

By Ibtisam Barakat

The biology teacher said that
people, all people, are made
mostly of water. .
And I understood that
all of us, like water,

have been through so much:
fell from the sky..
spent nights in the middle
of a dark ocean..
cleaned dirt out of clothes
and dishes of all kinds..
had to freeze in winters
and simmer under covers,
and be put in cubes and
hit countless times
on kitchen counters..
And I understood why
when someone’s tears fall
I feel . . .


Note: A Poem Made of Water" was written on a plane, after a conversation with a friend, and was first performed at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, March 2009. It has been read to many audiences around the world, and is printed in the poetry-and-art anthology INTERPRETATIONS, by the Columbia Art League, 2013. Photo is by Ibtisam Barakat, of Stephens Lake, Columbia, Missouri.