<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">Dear Ashraf Fayadh,</span></div><p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;"><span class="s1"> </span></p><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">Outside my window men speak</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">in a tongue I do not completely</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">understand. These are the men</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">who work the soil, the vineyards,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">who pray to another god and the</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">god’s mother, who sing <em class="">you are</em></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1"><em class="">never alone</em>. We are all orphans</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">searching for light, harmony lost</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">to the stark meaning of man-made</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">laws. In our hearts, the poem of</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">Love is perfected, is the most holy</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">relic of Time. Dear Ashraf Fayadh,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">may you live happily among the</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">living, neither lashed nor beheaded,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">on little islands of wonder, feeling</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">for all the gods what they are</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">incapable of feeling, each word,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">each brush stroke, a golden bee</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">bathed in the breath of heaven.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1"></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Katherine Hastings</span></div><p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; widows: 1;"><span class="s1"> </span></p><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, verdana, tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; widows: 1;" class=""><span class="s1">Note: Ashraf Fayadh is a Saudia Arabian artist and poet who has been sentenced to death, accused of promoting atheism in his 2008 book of poems <em class="">Instructions Within</em>. </span></div></body></html>