Samih Al Qasim biography:

Samih Al Qasim is among the most famous Palestinian poets. Born in 1939 in the Galilee-Palestine, he was held under house arrest and imprisoned, by Israeli occupation, many times because of his activism. Samih Al Qasim has published numerous poetry collections, and some of them have been translated into English, also some of his nationalistic poems have been put to music. He is the editor in chief of the Palestinian newspaper Koull El Arab.

Bats

Bats on my windows
suck in my words
Bats at the entrance to my house
behind newspaper , in corners
trail my footsteps ,
observing every movement of my head
From the back of the chair, bats watch me
They trail me in the streets
watching my eyes pause
on books, on young girls' legs . . .
they watch and watch
On my neighbor's balcony , bats,
and electronic gadgets hidden in the walls
Now bats are on the verge
of suicide
I am digging a road to daylight

A s h e s

Don't you feel we have lost so much
that our " great " love is now only words ,
that there's no more yearning , no urgency,
no real joy in our hearts, and when we meet
no wonder in our eyes?

Don't you feel our encounters are frozen ,
our kisses cold,
that we've lost the fervor of contact
and now merely exchange polite talk ?
Or we forget to meet at all
and tell false excuses . . .