Quotes from Suheir Hammad

Do not fear what has blown up. If you must, fear the unexploded.

Life is a right, not collateral or casual.

I am so old-fashioned. I've never lived with a man. I am completely about the independence of paying my own rent.

I've read too many books to believe what I am told.

Your war drum ain't / louder than this breath.

War and tooth enameled salted lemon childhoods All colors run, none of us solid Don't look for shadow behind me I carry it within I live cycles of light and darkness

a woman will tell you every home she has ever inhabited has been broken into starting with her body

I understand now my father really thought he was doing me good. Education means a lot to Palestinians. We've become some of the most educated people in the world through our diaspora. We've had to be. When you ain't got land, your degree may be your only solid ground. May father felt (feels) that being a doctor would give me security. How can I explain that I'm not safe from anything if I don't write?

in the world, it will be women, mostly colored and poor. women will have to bury children, and support themselves through grief.

i cried when i saw those buildings collapse on themselves like a broken heart.

The machine will grind you down, but the machine is not bigger than the imagination. Rome fell in a day. We know this.

There is life here. Anyone hearing this is breathing, maybe hurting, but breathing for sure. And if there is any light to come, it will shine from the eyes of those who look for peace and justice. After the rubble and rhetoric are cleared and the phoenix has risen, affirm life. affirm life. We got to carry each other now. You are either with life, or against it. Affirm life.

cause after politics economics war & illness, we still break each other's hearts - search mercy, aim compassion.

one more person ask me if i knew the hijackers. one more motherfucker ask me what navy my brother is in. one more person assume no arabs or muslims were killed. one more person assume they know me, or that i represent a people. or that a people represent an evil. or that evil is as simple as a flag and words on a page.

darkest before the dawn. it will get darker. be light.

There is life here. Anyone reading this is breathing, maybe hurting, but breathing for sure. And if there is any light to come, it will shine from the eyes of those who look for peace and justice after the rubble and rhetoric are cleared and the phoenix has risen. Affirm life. Affirm life. We got to carry each other now. You're either with life or against it. Affirm life.

I think of feminism as a socially just and imaginative world.

I came from a traditional immigrant family where education meant there were only a few valid paths: doctor or lawyer - and I didn't want to be either one.