I Sing from the Window of Exile  
DAREEN TATOUR  (Drunk Muse Press) £11

We Will Fly Higher  
PARWANI AMIRI (Palewell Press) £9.99

DAREEN TATOUR is a Palestinian Poet currently exiled in Sweden. Her story became world news when in 2016 was imprisoned for the “crime” of writing a poem. 

The charge: “Incitement through social media.” The Poem: Resist my people, Resist them went viral. 

It begins: “Resist my people, resist/ In Jerusalem I dressed my wounds/ and breathed my sorrows and carried the soul in my palm/ for an Arab Palestine.” It continues: “Shred the disgraceful constitution/ which imposed degradation and humiliation” and ends with the title refrain to resist the oppression of what most of the international community agree is a repressive regime. 

The poem is free to read in its entirety online and the English translation is by Tariq al-Haydar.

Her arrest and subsequent “Kafkaesque” trial as described by activist Yoav Haifawi, where “a scene like a political satire sees a policeman translating the poem into Hebrew” is documented in her memoir My Threatening Poem (also published by Drunk Muse Press). 

The international outcry against her imprisonment, torture and humiliation led to her being released under house arrest. 

Her forced exile to Sweden was a direct breaking of the code of human rights by a state which just ignores it and is, of course, willing to break the 4th Geneva convention (article 49) in its illegal occupation of Palestine.

Tatour’s latest book from the radical Scottish based publisher Drunk Muse Press is, as its title suggests, a collection of poems written from exile and is presented by the Irish poets and editors Neil Young and Jessamine O’Connor in its original Arabic with English translations by Terrie Dawood and is available from drunkmusepress.com.

From exile she writes of her love for her homeland, of the loss of her family and human relationships, of violence, torture and humiliations inflicted upon her people and specifically on female prisoners.

And yet, amid the utter horror of it all, her voice sings out for all those caged and is a clarion call for justice, humanity and change.

In case you think that this kind of thing happens rarely, the second book I am recommending this month is by Parwana Amiri and published by the London based independent publisher Palewell press who publish poetry, fiction and non fiction focused on Justice, Equality and Sustainability (www.palewellpress.co.uk).

The poems in We Will Fly Higher were written in the Ritsona Refugee Camp where Amiri lived for two years before finally reaching Germany in 2022. She is an author, poet and activist from Afghanistan. 

These poems focus on the struggle of refugees, the systemic violence of border control mechanisms, the violated lives of girls “fallen into silence” who are beaten and raped after the hardships of their escape from their homes. 

Also, of the loss of identity, country, family, dignity and respect that refugees are stripped of and the despair of finally escaping only to be attacked by the begrudging people of the countries offering safe harbour. 

These are powerful, authentic poems and show a different side to the situation which mainstream media like to ignore in their demonisation of refugees as criminals.