Aid distribution for some of the tens of thousands who have fled North Waziristan. © UNHCR, July 2, 2014
BANNU, Pakistan — For more than five centuries, poets in remote northwestern Pakistan have recited verses about the area’s mountainous scenery, their tribal culture and love. That all changed as Islamist militants tightened their hold on Pakistan’s tribal regions after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Taliban and its allies quickly crushed the poets’ words and spirits. They were warned not to write phrases that referred to women or serenity and instead ordered to compose jihadist messages of war, brutality and conformity. Now, about 50 poets are part of a mass migration of more than 700,000 Pakistanis who have been displaced from the North Waziristan region as the military seeks to dislodge Islamist militants there. And amid the chaos of refugee life, they are restoring tradition to their verses. --Aamir Iqbal and Tim Craig, Washington Post, July 25, 2014
I would sell my grandmother’s diamond
to write this poem.
I would invite ground hogs and deer into my pea patch
to write this poem.
I would drop my sails and turn into the wind
to write this poem.
I would walk a hot highway in thin flip flops
to write this poem.
I would tear my daughter’s wedding dress
to write this poem.
I would fast without water from sunset to sunset
to write this poem.
I would close my eyes to swallows in the summer sky
to write this poem.
I would wash and dry and fold one hundred strangers’ clothes
to write this poem.
I would bind my ankles and stop running
to write this poem.
I would let the trees in my yard burn to ash
to write this poem.
I would sleep alone again
to write this poem.
I have never been told
not to write this poem.
How do I earn this poem?
How do I give this poem away?
Grace Mattern’s poems have appeared in The Sun, Prairie Schooner, Hanging Loose, Yankee and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from the NH State Arts Council and Vermont Studio Center and has published two books of poetry. She has worked in the movement to end violence against women for 35 years.