“Poems from Guantánamo brings to light figures of concrete, individual humanity, against the fabric of cruelty woven by the ‘war on terror.’ The poems and poets’ biographies reveal one dimension of this officially obscured narrative, from the perspective of the sufferers; the legal and literary essays provide the context which has produced—under atrocious circumstances—a poetics of human dignity.”—Adrienne Rich
Since 2002, at least 775 men have been held in the U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. According to Department of Defense data, fewer than half of them are accused of committing any hostile act against the United States or its allies. In hundreds of cases, even the circumstances of their initial detainment are questionable.
This collection gives voice to the men held at Guantánamo. Available only because of the tireless efforts of pro bono attorneys who submitted each line to Pentagon scrutiny, Poems from Guantánamo brings together twenty-two poems by seventeen detainees, most still at Guantánamo, in legal limbo.
If, in the words of Audre Lorde, poetry “forms the quality of light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change,” these verses—some originally written in toothpaste, others scratched onto foam drinking cups with pebbles and furtively handed to attorneys—are the most basic form of the art.
Death Poem
by Jumah al Dossari (mp3)
Take my blood.
Take my death shroud and
The remnants of my body.
Take photographs of my corpse at the grave, lonely.
Send them to the world,
To the judges and
To the people of conscience,
Send them to the principled men and the fair-minded.
And let them bear the guilty burden before the world,
Of this innocent soul.
Let them bear the burden before their children and before history,
Of this wasted, sinless soul,
Of this soul which has suffered at the hands of the “protectors of peace.”
Jumah al Dossari is a thirty-three-year-old Bahraini who has been held at Guantánamo Bay for more than five years. He has been in solitary confinement since the end of 2003 and, according to the U.S. military, has tried to kill himself twelve times while in custody.
Audio Files
Listen to poems:
pfg-01-intro-i-shall-not-complain.mp3
pfg-04-two-fragments-cup-poems.mp3
Readings by Joan Kjaer and David Hamilton. Copyright 2007 University of 10 Press. All rights reserved.
Additional Resources and Information
The Wall Street Journal's feature on Poems from Guantánamo, please click .
The New York Times coverage, please click .
The Washington Post's coverage, please click .
National Public Radio's broadcast, please click .
PBS's Frontline, "Son of al Qaeda," please click .
The U.S. Navy, Guantánamo Base site, please click .
The National Guantánamo Coalition page, please click .
Joint Task Force, Guantánamo Bay, please click .
U.S. Department of Defense, Military Commissions Proceedings, Guantánamo Bay, please click .
BBC report, "Life in a Guantánamo Cell," please click .
The Guantánamo Blog, by H. Candace Gorman, habeas attorney, please click .
Project Hamad, please click .
Timeline Theatre, "Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom," please click .
ACLU directory of government documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act related to treatment of detainees, please click .
PEN American Center, please click .
American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, please click .
U.S. Department of State, Detainee Issues Archives, please click .
United Nations report on treatment of detainees, please click .
Seton Hall University School of Law, "Second Report on the Guantánamo Detainees: Inter- and Intra-Departmental Disagreements about Who Is Our Enemy," please click .
International Committee of the Red Cross, "The ICRC's work at Guantánamo Bay," statement on confidential report on alleged abuse of detainees, made in response to New York Times report of treatment "tantamount to torture," please click .
UC Davis Human Rights Center, please click .
UC Davis Human Rights Center testimonials from Guantánamo Bay, please click .
410media's interactive review, please click .
Daily Kos story 1, please click .
Daily Kos story 2, please click .
Boston Globe's op-ed, please click .
Review from the Socialist Worker, please click .
Please check out what On The Media has to say .
To read Andy Worthington's article, please click .
To read Nth Position's article, please click .
To read about poetry that saves, please click .
“At last Guantánamo has found its voice.”—Gore Vidal
“Poetry, art of the human voice, helps turn us toward what we should or must not ignore. Speaking as they can across barriers actual and figurative, translated into our American tongue, these voices in confinement implicitly call us to our principles and to our humanity. They deserve, above all, not admiration or belief or sympathy—but attention. Attention to them is urgent for us.”—Robert Pinsky
Acknowledgments
Notes on Guantanamo: an introduction by Marc Falkoff
Forms of Suffering in Muslim Prison Poetry: a preface by Flagg Miller
They Fight for Peace, Shaker Abdurraheem Aamer
O Prison Darkness, Abdulaziz
I Shall Not Complain, Abdulaziz
To My Father, Abdullah Thani Faris al Anazi
Lions in the Cage, Ustad Badruzzaman Badr
Homeward Bound, Moazzam Begg
Death Poem, Jumah al Dossari
They Cannot Help, Shakih Abdurraheem Muslim Dost
Cup Poem 1, Shakih Abdurraheem Muslim Dost
Cup Poem 2, Shakih Abdurraheem Muslim Dost
Two Fragments, Shakih Abdurraheem Muslim Dost
First Poem of My Life, Mohammed el Gharani
Humiliated in the Shackles, Sami al Haj
The Truth, Emad Abdullah Hassan
Is It True? Osama Abu Kabir
Hunger Strike Poem, Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif
I Am Sorry, My Brother, Othman Abdulraheem Mohammad
Terrorist 2003, Martin Mubanga
I Write My Hidden Longing, Abdulla Majid al Noaimi, the Captive of Dignity
My Heart Was Wounded by the Strangeness, Abdulla Majid al Noaimi, the Captive of Dignity
Ode to the Sea, Ibrahim al Rubaish
Even if the Pain, Siddiq Turkestani
