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On The Difficulty Of Documentation (audio only)

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Khaled Mattawa
1964 –

Click the icon above to listen to this audio poem.

From the Academy of American Poets Audio Archive. www.poets.org. All rights reserved.

Khaled Mattawa
Photo credit: Khairy Shaban

Born in Benghazi, Libya, in 1964, Khaled Mattawa is a poet and translator of contemporary Arabic poetry. He served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2014 to 2020.

About Khaled Mattawa

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More by this poet

The Pages You Loved

Foresee how dried, yellowed,
with neglect, think

of the hands that made them,
not with love, with certainty,

the leather smooth decades later,
the pages warm as wood,

the thought reaching a seed
that fell from a bird’s flight,

Khaled Mattawa
2024

Now That We Have Tasted Hope

Now that we have come out of hiding,
Why would we live again in the tombs we’d made out of our     souls?

And the sundered bodies that we’ve reassembled
With prayers and consolations,
What would their torn parts be, other than flesh?

Now that we have tasted hope
And dressed each other’s wounds with the legends of our
     oneness
Would we not prefer to close our mouths forever shut
On the wine that swilled inside them?

Khaled Mattawa
2016

Beatitudes

1.

My child wants to know if the mountains really cowered.

“How do you know when a sea or a river is afraid?

How do you know when the sky is thinking yes or no?

 

And why did Adam say yes—Did he know that

all the other creatures refused? Was he arrogant

or just ignorant? Was he God’s last choice?”

 

2.

“Did you really have a party the day the dictator died?

Khaled Mattawa
2019

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