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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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ALPHABETS of MY HEART
Poem by Ibtisam Barakat


Because I am from East and West
a mother with two alphabets
and I must not love one
more than the other
if they are to grow up
and love each other,
when I speak English
I make a seat in my voice
for Arabic.

Like children these two languages
love to sit in my lap

at the same time
and paw at me for attention . . .

On the line, Arabic moves

from right to left
and English moves

from left to right . . .

On the line, at times,

outside in the world
it is a line of fire . . .

But in my heart, all of the time,
it is a line where the two languages
walk forth toward each other --
a bride and her beloved . . .

a family of twenty nine letters on one side,

and a family of twenty six on the other . . .
They move with a quickening in their hearts . . .

West tells the East;
East tells the West;
I have missed you.
Come sit by me.
I do. I do. I do.
Teach me more about yourself.


And when death comes
it does not part us
for the alphabets live . . .
for in your beginning 

there was the word
and in my beginning,

the angel instructed:
Iqra'; Iqra'; Iqra'
Read. Read. Read
were the first words.

The zero of the Arabic numerals
is the ring

of eternity . . .




Note: Iqra' is the first word of the Qur'an. This poem was first published in Meena Magazine, a bilingual publication based in Alexandria and New Orleans.