Arabic books by Mahmoud Darwish, with his portrait, displayed at the Mahmoud Darwish Museum in Ramallah (occupied West Bank). Photograph taken on Jan. 21, 2023. (Credit: Badarin/Wikimedia Commons)
Hala Mohammad is a Syrian poet and filmmaker born in Latakia. She studied cinema in Paris and addresses themes of memory, exile, and freedom in her poetry.On the occasion of Mahmoud Darwish Poetry Day, an international tribute organized by the Centre Pompidou and the Arab World Institute and held from Sept. 25 to 27, 2026, she returns to the influence of Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry on her life and how it keeps hope, the memory of Palestine, and the desire for freedom in human consciousness alive.I do not know how Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry entered my childhood home, or how it now lives on the shelves of my memory's library, alongside the poetry of Al-Mutanabbi, Badawi al-Jabal, Antarah, Abu Tammam, Al-Ma‘arri, and Nizar Qabbani, and Said Akl in Fairuz’s voice, or in the morning quiet of our home. Later, his poetry entered the home of my...
Hala Mohammad is a Syrian poet and filmmaker born in Latakia. She studied cinema in Paris and addresses themes of memory, exile, and freedom in her poetry.On the occasion of Mahmoud Darwish Poetry Day, an international tribute organized by the Centre Pompidou and the Arab World Institute and held from Sept. 25 to 27, 2026, she returns to the influence of Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry on her life and how it keeps hope, the memory of Palestine, and the desire for freedom in human consciousness alive.I do not know how Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry entered my childhood home, or how it now lives on the shelves of my memory's library, alongside the poetry of Al-Mutanabbi, Badawi al-Jabal, Antarah, Abu Tammam, Al-Ma‘arri, and Nizar Qabbani, and Said Akl in Fairuz’s voice, or in the morning quiet of our home. Later, his poetry entered the home...