My Voice Cannot Be Bombed

by Yahya Al Hamarna

Genres: Poetry

44 pages, Paperback

Published August 11, 2025

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very important collection of Hamarna's poetry written during the current phase of Israel's genocide of Palestinian people and culture: the intensification of ethnic cleansing and industrialised mass death in Gaza post Al-Aqsa flood. Which is to say, all of the poetry was written in the last two years and reflect upon the themes and questions that those with their eyes on Gaza are already well-familiarised with. The poems juxtapose the beauty of land and people with the senseless cruelty of the colonial occupation destroying it ("I look at the moon / like a little child / and I feel the moon is walking with me...I miss sitting with the moon without missiles"), highlight the apathy of the onlooking world ("Does anyone see us? Does anyone see us??!! / Finally, does anyone see us?"), yet adopt a view full of hope and forward looking, best summed up again and again in the final poem (excuse an extended quote here):

To hold onto hope demands courage beyond imagination.
A question lingers in our hearts:
Will we ever build a brighter tomorrow?
Or will hope remain an unfinished chapter in the book of our history?
I feel surrounded by beings of light—each carrying a dream
tucked inside their pocket.
And every dream looks up toward a sky with no barriers.
Here, where crisis dances with hope, the people of Gaza understand:
they are not victims of history,
but the authors of a future that flickers like sunlight behind gray clouds.
And so, I continue my journey in this land, drawing lines of hope along the pathways of pain.
I remind myself:
even in hardship, life is worth living—with dignity.
Dawn is coming.
And I am here—
with a thousand stories,
and a thousand dreams

I used to teach, and this is perhaps the poem that I would've shared with my students out of the collection.

I also read Rifqa, by Mohammed El-Kurd recently, which has more variety in topics and structure and grapples with other themes—such as the complicated emotions of being a refugee in America, safe but watching your home be obliterated with the support of the adopted nation which demands your gratitude for not murdering you—yet similarities still abound. Both collections are worth reading, and Iskra deserve praise for providing access to this one free of charge on their website.

[Chad Alexander Guarino da Verona · Rating 5 out of 5]

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