Return is inherently an experiment in phenomenology; to go or come back is a beckoning of how to arrive.

Had my mother taught me to weave grief, I would have made a sweater to shield me from this fear and you would have heard me singing as if I had never died. 

Red on red The song is history moving through the present.

My death is not a song For you to sing Is not a March for You to walk in

Reflecting on Two Years of Genocide It is unfathomable that we have reached this moment. Two years of live-streamed, US-backed … Continue reading "The Memorial Folio"

[Background image above depicts an Israeli strike on the Islamic University of Gaza on December 2, 2023, killing physics professor … Continue reading "Join the Call to Cancel PEN America at University of Minnesota"

I love you— Force the city to hear it out loud.

But the immense neglect and physical destruction of these places along the societal fabric puts doubt in whether the new free Syria, with its new and varied diasporic community, can reclaim a healthy and thriving society with a collectivist living philosophy. It is a challenge that requires utopian imagings as well as forms of expression and commemoration of the sacrifices and displacement faced by the people.

In this debut poetry publication by Syrian-American mathematician, musician, and writer M. Hakim, I am reminded of the ways grief … Continue reading "“the tart air from Damascus”—New Syrian Poetry"