"Dor" by Nathalie Handal

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend April 3, 2019   Dor   Nathalie Handal

We walk through clouds wrapped in ancient symbols   We descend the hill wearing water   Maybe we are dead and don't know it   Maybe we are violet flowers and those we long for   love only our unmade hearts   On attends, on attends   Wait for Duras and Eminescu to tell us in French then Romanian   light has wounds slow down— memory is misgivings   Wait until the nails get rusty in the houses of our past.            Copyright © 2019 by Nathalie Handal. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on April 3, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets. About This Poem   "Growing up, I was a constant passenger in someone's landscape. Maybe these landscapes were mine too, but I was never certain. There was always someone or something that made me question my part in it. For refugees, migrants, exiles, and internally displaced peoples, home often becomes what's lost—what undid, tormented, or saved us. One afternoon, my Swiss Romanian friend and novelist Raluca Antonescu and I were lost in the streets of our minds. She suddenly said, 'In Romanian, we have the word Dor. It means the longing felt when you miss someone—or somewhere—you love.' This is what keeps me hopeful, how we can belong to a three-letter word in a foreign language." —Nathalie Handal   Nathalie Handal is the author of several poetry collections, including Life in A Country Album, forthcoming from University of Pittsburgh Press in 2019, and The Republics (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015). Photo Credit: Rachel Eliza Griffiths Poetry by Handal   The Republics (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015) "Prayer for My Immigrant Relatives" by Lory Bedikian "Day of the Refugios" by Alberto Ríos "Writing Home" by Wendy Xu April Guest Editor: Tracy K. Smith   Thanks to Tracy K. Smith, poet laureate of the United States and author of Wade in the Water (Graywolf Press, 2019), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read a Q&A with Smith about her curatorial approach this month and find out more about our guest editors for the year. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038

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