When Poetry Becomes a Lifeline: An Anthology for Palestine
Palestinian poet, Yahia Lababidi, writes
Even a quiet moan or sighing
is preferable to false words or worse:
a loud and wounding Silence…
It is to counter this “loud and wounding Silence” that this anthology has been produced. Since October 2023, the world has witnessed a genocide unfold in real time—yet for Palestinians, the violence is not new. It stretches back to the Nakba of 1948, a catastrophe etched into memory, bone, and now, verse. This anthology is a chorus of voices refusing silence.
Curated by John P Portelli, Unsilenced: Poems for Palestine brings together poets from Palestine, the diaspora, and globally—including renowned names like Fady Joudah, Leila Marshy and Marwan Makhoul alongside some 50 international poets. Their work grapples with:
The weight of witness: Poems written amid bombardment, exile, and exile’s long shadow.
The irony of "international law": How language itself becomes a battleground.
The stubbornness of hope: Olive trees, watermelons, and visions of a liberated future.
These poems are acts of survival, expressions of solidarity.
While social media floods with headlines, poetry does something different: it forces us to feel. To sit with the contradictions of complicity, the ache of displacement, the fury of betrayal by so-called democracies.
This collection is not just a book—it’s a fundraiser. 100% of proceeds will go to support Gaza, providing support and solidarity.
If you’ve ever wondered how art can confront injustice, start here.
📖 Order Unsilenced: Poems for Palestine
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"We write to breathe. We publish to remind the world: Palestine is still here."