The songs of the hills,
the beds the kinfolk prepared for the
trees.
A shroud that binds the soil,
this is an eternal yard
for the vines in their dance,
for an olive branch swaying
like the hand of an Imam.
The poems of stones
unsettle the concrete and
go ignored by the pines.
The trespassers, with their cypress,
will not hear the chant of the stone walls.
They will not understand this embrace
of stone against stone,
or from where this tune rises.
How does the hillside rise with the story
without slipping away?
The sun will burn the pines
when it longs for the harvest,
and the valley will swallow
the bricks of the transient.
For the haunted will never learn to dance,
and stones do not teach their tongue
except to those who are at home.
The songs of the hills,
the beds the kinfolk prepared for the
trees.
A shroud that binds the soil,
this is an eternal yard
for the vines in their dance,
for an olive branch swaying
like the hand of an Imam.
The poems of stones
unsettle the concrete and
go ignored by the pines.
The trespassers, with their cypress,
will not hear the chant of the stone walls.
They will not understand this embrace
of stone against stone,
or from where this tune rises.
How does the hillside rise with the story
without slipping away?
The sun will burn the pines
when it longs for the harvest,
and the valley will swallow
the bricks of the transient.
For the haunted will never learn to dance,
and stones do not teach their tongue
except to those who are at home.
Hussein Amri is a Palestinian poet, filmmaker and editor in Barcelona, working on the politics of narrative and what survives translation from Arabic. He has spent twelve years in humanitarian communications, much of it with Médecins Sans Frontières, alongside work with Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Refugee Council. His current focus is the politics of aid and the decolonisation of aid in Gaza. He is now studying for a master's degree in Film and Television at Falmouth University.
Ahmad "Mouri" Zaghmouri is a Palestinian photographer, creative director and cultural producer in Barcelona, working on visual narrative and the storytelling of Global South and Palestinian life. He co-founded BLTNM Records, the independent label that reshaped Palestinian and Arab underground music, and has curated work with the Sharjah Art Foundation and the Kamel Lazaar Foundation. His photographic practice centres analog film and the relationship between land, memory and image. He created the photography for Song of the Hills, made with poet Hussein Amri, while in residence at the Wonder Cabinet in Bethlehem.
Hussein Amri is a Palestinian poet, filmmaker and editor in Barcelona, working on the politics of narrative and what survives translation from Arabic. He has spent twelve years in humanitarian communications, much of it with Médecins Sans Frontières, alongside work with Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Refugee Council. His current focus is the politics of aid and the decolonisation of aid in Gaza. He is now studying for a master's degree in Film and Television at Falmouth University.
Ahmad "Mouri" Zaghmouri is a Palestinian photographer, creative director and cultural producer in Barcelona, working on visual narrative and the storytelling of Global South and Palestinian life. He co-founded BLTNM Records, the independent label that reshaped Palestinian and Arab underground music, and has curated work with the Sharjah Art Foundation and the Kamel Lazaar Foundation. His photographic practice centres analog film and the relationship between land, memory and image. He created the photography for Song of the Hills, made with poet Hussein Amri, while in residence at the Wonder Cabinet in Bethlehem.
PALESTINE IS EVERYWHERE
