Project Description
Nahida Izzat
Nahida Izzat was born in Jerusalem; she was forced to leave Palestine as a refugee in 1967 at the age of seven years, during the “Six Day War”.
She moved around, living in several different countries, until finally settling in the UK in 1985.
She was inspired to write these poems after the start of the second Intifada in 2000. She is a full-time mother of three, and has a degree in mathematics. Her dream is to return to a free and peaceful Palestine.
Will I ever grow up again?
Life on hold
My internal clock is shattered into pieces
The 37 years of forced exile
Have no record in my book of memories
Chapters of lost titles
Blank sheets; Page after page
Unseen Pictures with no lines
Mysterious characters with no faces
Images that have no shape or colour
Invisible words that have no letters
Nor meanings
A sad story with an unwritten script
Life on hold
Ageing by the day
The head inflamed with grey hair
Swallowed by the dark sea of shame
Having to flee without facing the storm
Shaken by the gales of hurt and pain
With my roots uprooted
A freezing gloomy everlasting winter
Watching over my shoulders
Awaiting my decay
Life on hold
I was seven
I am seven
I will be seven
And I will stay seven
Until the day of my return
The pieces of my shattered clock
Will be put together, that day
And it will start ticking again
The pink and white blossoms of my spring
Will be something more than just a dream