<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=""><p style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-user-select: text;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Tense Times</span></p><p style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-user-select: text;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Tense times for me, <br style="-webkit-user-select: text; margin-top: 0px;" class="">and sleep’s acting like a newly love-struck teen. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">I shall disregard the state my heart’s in <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">and my mind’s upheavals like water bubbling <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">past the boiling point.</span></p><p style="list-style: none; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-user-select: text;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">I am a part of the universe with which the universe is angry, <br style="-webkit-user-select: text; margin-top: 0px;" class="">a part of the earth of which the earth feels utterly ashamed, <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">a wretched human towards whom <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">other humans cannot maintain neutrality.</span></p><p style="list-style: none; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-user-select: text;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Neutrality: an illusion <br style="-webkit-user-select: text; margin-top: 0px;" class="">like all the graces of which humans speak, so shamelessly theoretical. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">Truth is an inadequate term, just like Man,<br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">and love bumps about,<br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">a miserable fly <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">trapped in a glass box. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">Freedom is <em style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-user-select: text;" class="">very</em> relative:<br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">all said and done we live in a ball-shaped prison <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">barred with ozone.<br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">Set free, our fate<br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">is certain death.</span></p><p style="list-style: none; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-user-select: text;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">I am incapable of laughing.<br style="-webkit-user-select: text; margin-top: 0px;" class="">Completely incapable of smiling, even. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">Incapable, at the same time, of crying. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">Incapable of acting like a human being, <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">which doesn’t upset me in the slightest <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">though it hurts so <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">to have a body covered with light down, <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">to walk on two limbs, <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">to depend wholly on your mind, <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">to be drawn after your desires to the furthest point, <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">to have your freedom trapped, <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">to have others decide to kill you, <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">to miss those closest to you <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">without a chance to say farewell.</span></p><p style="list-style: none; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-user-select: text;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">What good does Farewell do <br style="-webkit-user-select: text; margin-top: 0px;" class="">but leave a sad impression? <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">What good’s meeting? <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">What good’s love? <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">What good is it to be this alive <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">while others die from sorrow <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">over you?</span></p><p style="list-style: none; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-user-select: text;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">I saw my father for the last time through thick glass<br style="-webkit-user-select: text; margin-top: 0px;" class="">then he departed, for good. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">Because of me, let’s say. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">Let us say because he could not bear the thought <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">I’d die before him. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">My father died and left death to besiege me <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">without it frightening me sufficiently. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">Why does death scare us to death? <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">My father departed after a long time <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">spent on the surface of this planet. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">I didn’t say farewell as I should have <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">nor grieve for him as I should have <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">and was incapable of tears, <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">as is my habit, which grows uglier with time.</span></p><p style="list-style: none; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-user-select: text;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">The soldiers besiege me on all fronts <br style="-webkit-user-select: text; margin-top: 0px;" class="">in uniforms of poor color. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">Laws and regimes and statutes besiege me. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">Sovereignty besieges me,<br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">a highly concentrated instinct that living creatures cannot shake. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">My loneliness besieges me. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">My loneliness chokes me. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">I am choked by depression, nervousness, worry. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">Remorse, that I’m a member of the human race, kills me.<br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">I was unable to say goodbye to all those I love <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">and who departed, even temporarily. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">I was unable to leave a good impression of a last meeting.<br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">Then I yielded to the rifles of longing <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">leveled my way. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">I refused to raise my hand <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">and became incapacitated. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">Then I was bound by sorrow <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">that failed to force me to tears.</span></p><p style="list-style: none; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-user-select: text;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">The Knowing gnaws at me from within, <br style="-webkit-user-select: text; margin-top: 0px;" class="">killing every shot I have at survival. <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">The Knowing is killing me slowly <br style="-webkit-user-select: text;" class="">and it’s much too late for a cure.</span></p><p style="list-style: none; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-user-select: text;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Ashram Fayadh</span></p><p style="list-style: none; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-user-select: text;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Fayadh is a Palestinian poet, living in exile in Saudi Arabia. In 2015, he was sentenced to death for cursing against Allah and the prophet Muhammad, insulting Saudi Arabia and distributing a book of <a href="http://http//arablit.org/2015/01/13/imprisoned-poet-ashraf-fayadhs-frida-kahlos-mustache/" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(199, 0, 0, 0.329412) 0px, rgba(199, 0, 0, 0.329412) 100%); background-size: 1px; background-position: 0px 93%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;" class="">his poems</a> that promoted atheism. The above is the first poem he wrote while imprisoned. </span></p><p style="list-style: none; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-user-select: text;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">Hundreds of leading authors, artists and actors, including the director of Tate Modern, Chris Dercon, the British poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, and actor Helen Mirren <a href="x-gu://item/mobile.guardianapis.com/international/items/world/2015/nov/25/cultural-figures-human-rights-groups-call-release-ashraf-fayadh-poet-facing-execution" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(199, 0, 0, 0.329412) 0px, rgba(199, 0, 0, 0.329412) 100%); background-size: 1px; background-position: 0px 93%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;" class=""> appealed for his release</a>. More than 60 international arts and human rights groups, including Amnesty International and the writers’ association PEN International, launched a campaign calling on the Saudi authorities and western governments to save him. Readings of his poetry in support of his case <a href="x-gu://item/mobile.guardianapis.com/international/items/books/2016/jan/14/writers-join-worldwide-action-to-protest-palestinian-poets-death-sentence-in-saudi-arabia" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; -webkit-user-select: text; background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(199, 0, 0, 0.329412) 0px, rgba(199, 0, 0, 0.329412) 100%); background-size: 1px; background-position: 0px 93%; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat;" class="">took place in 44 countries</a>.</span></p><p style="list-style: none; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-user-select: text;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class="">His sentence was later commuted to eight years, 800 lashes and a personal renunciation of his work.</span></p><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);" class=""><br class=""></span></div><figure class="element element-image figure-wide" data-media-id="ac7da724b54188b7d5692a71a7fdbb5282ebb626" style="list-style: none; margin: 12px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-user-select: text; width: 620px; clear: left;"></figure></body></html>