78 quotes
Outside, the sky felt deep and dark as if a large soft blanket had been thrown over the hills and valleys. (p54)
Habibi (1997)
Right then he knew that moment was clearly written in his brain forever. (p170)
Turtles of Oman (2014)
Maybe peace was the size of a teacup. (p226)
Habibi (1997)
I've always felt there was a song right around us all the time. When people are missing that, they need to wake up. They need to find their poetry where they are.
Conversations with the World by Phebe Davidson (1998)
Did people who committed acts of violence think their victims and their victims' relatives would just forget? Didn't people see? How violence went on and on like a terrible wheel? (p225)
Habibi (1997)
it’s mysterious how these power structures unfold, isn’t it, and how we’re willing to accept them and allow them to prevail without questioning them.
with On Being (2016)
this was what patriotism meant to me-
to be at home inside my own head long enough
to accept its infinite freedom
and move forward anywhere, to mysteries coming.
Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners (2018)
Liyana Abboud had just tasted her first kiss when her parents announced they were leaving the country. (first line)
Habibi (1997)
Tear gas canisters scattered in the fields by Israeli soldiers say, "Made in Pennsylvania."...I keep thinking of those signs in the United States at construction sites: YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK HERE.
Never in a Hurry: Essays on People and Places (1996)
As a direct line to human feeling, empathic experience, genuine language and detail, poetry is everything that headline news is not. It takes us inside situations, helps us imagine life from more than one perspective, honors imagery and metaphor — those great tools of thought — and deepens our confidence in a meaningful world.
This Is Not Who We Are: Arab-Americans in a Post-9/11 World (2002)
This is what I want a book of poems and paintings to be-a surprising spring waking us from our daily sleep. A feast of little dishes. An unexpected walk along the rim of a majestic city. Ahlan Wa Sahlan-You are all welcome!
introduction to The Space Between Our Footsteps (1998)
Writing...helps us identify what makes the whole geography of our lives.
with Al Jadid (1996)
[A]n onion falls apart on the chopping block,
a history revealed
Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems (2020)
Discovering Something New Every Day was an Al-Amri family motto. Aref's father said people started playing this game the day they were born. (p7)
Turtles of Oman (2014)
details have always been the doorway by which we approach and apprehend the larger things of the world, the larger truths, whatever they might be.
Conversations with the World by Phebe Davidson (1998)
When you liked somebody, you wanted to trade the best things you knew about. You liked them not only for themselves, but for the parts of you that they brought out. (p255)
Habibi (1997)
Maybe the hardest thing about moving overseas was being in a place where no one but your own family had any memory of you. It was like putting yourself back together with little pieces. (p80)
Habibi (1997)
"You will need to be brave. There are hard days coming. There are hard words waiting in people’s mouths to be spoken. There are walls. You can’t break them. Just find doors in them." (p258)
Habibi (1997)