Poems from Guantanamo
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Think of the prisoners, breathing in and breathing out those
words, close by an ocean they can hear nearby but never see
and never touch. Think of them, now represented to their far-
away foes by words of fire and sorrow, asking us to listen, to
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acknowledge the buried flame of their existence. Think that we have a chance to help them complete the journey that started
in a cage inside a concentration camp, merely by something as
simple as reading these poems. Think that perhaps someday,
perhaps soon, if we care enough, if we are troubled enough, it
will not be just the verses that are set free to roam the world but the hands and lips and lungs that composed them.
Until that day arrives, their true home, rather than the in-
famous detention center at Guantánamo Bay, will be the bitter
poems they have written against loneliness and death.
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Document Outline
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Notes on Guantánamo, an introduction by Marc Falkoff
Forms of Suffering in Muslim Prison Poetry, a preface by Flagg Miller
They Fight for Peace, Shaker Abdurraheem Aamer
O Prison Darkness, Abdulaziz
I Shall Not Complain, Abdulaziz
To My Father, Abdullah Thani Faris al Anazi
Lions in the Cage, Ustad Badruzzaman Badr
Homeward Bound, Moazzam Begg
Death Poem, Jumah al Dossari
They Cannot Help, Shaikh Abdurraheem Muslim Dost
Cup Poem 1, Shaikh Abdurraheem Muslim Dost
Cup Poem 2, Shaikh Abdurraheem Muslim Dost
Two Fragments, Shaikh Abdurraheem Muslim Dost
First Poem of My Life, Mohammed el Gharani
Humiliated in the Shackles, Sami al Haj
The Truth, Emad Abdullah Hassan
Is It True? Osama Abu Kabir
Hunger Strike Poem, Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif
I Am Sorry, My Brother, Othman Abdulraheem Mohammad
Terrorist 2003, Martin Mubanga
I Write My Hidden Longing, Abdulla Majid al Noaimi, the Captive of Dignity
My Heart Was Wounded by the Strangeness, Abdulla Majid al Noaimi, the Captive of Dignity
Ode to the Sea, Ibrahim al Rubaish
Even if the Pain, Siddiq Turkestani
Where the Buried Flame Burns, an afterword by Ariel Dorfman