DON'T LOOK AWAY NOW (music Max Richter)

A BRIGHT EGG (music Olafur Arnalds)

poem by mish 2022

artwork by mish

A BRIGHT EGG (music Olafur Arnalds)

HOUSE OF EXPLOSION (music Olafur Arnalds)

FIRE TO FIRE (Music Olafur Arnalds)

RELAX (music Olafur Arnalds)

original artwork by mish

RELAX (music Olafur Arnalds)

HE SAID poem by mish 2023

original artwork by mish

HE SAID (music Johann Johannsson)

AS SIMPLE AS CREATION IS UNKNOWING (Music Tim Story)
artwork original by mish

AS SIMPLE AS CREATION IS UNKNOWING (Music Tim Story)

BRING THEM BACK
poem by mish
music Olafur Arnalds

original artwork by mish

BRING THEM BACK (MUSIC: Olafur Arnalds)

A FIELD OF FLOWERS
poem by mish 2023...

original artwork by mish...

A FIELD OF FLOWERS (music Olafur Arnalds)

NOW MORE THAN EVER poem by mish 2023

original artwork by mish

NOW MORE THAN EVER (music Olafur Arnalds)

BELEIVING IT IS BREAD poem by mish (music olafur arnalds)

...original artwork by mish...

BELIEVING IT IS BREAD (music olafur arnalds)

TODAY I'M GOING TO BE KIND TO MYSELF poem by mish 2016

original artwork by mish

TODAY I'M GOING TO BE KIND TO MYSELF (music Olafur Arnalds)

DANCE WITH ME

(music Luis Enríquez Bacalov)

...original artwork by mish...

DANCE WITH ME (music Luis Enríquez Bacalov)

HOW WHEN (music Olafur Arnalds)

poem by mish

original artwork by mish

HOW WHEN (music Olafur Arnalds)

WHEN THE WARS END poem by mish 2022

original artwork by mish...

WHEN THE WARS END

THAT THE DARK DARE NOT CONSUME poem by mish 2023

original artwork by mish...

THAT THE DARK DARE NOT CONSUME

LOOKING OUT FROM THE RUBBLE

The moon remained generous despite the horror and my eyes had not yet betrayed me. Looking out from the rubble I saw shapes and shadows dancing on a garden wall fluid and free like a brand new existence in a brand new city where silence is sweet music and where the gods have been appeased
When I finally escape this powdered concrete grave
I shall redirect the horror and enter bliss by the city gates
I shall dance like a shadow
I shall spill my heart freely
I shall love till it destroys me
I shall imitate the moon
(mish 2023)
ORIGINAL ARTWORK BY MISH

LOOKING OUT FROM THE RUBBLE (music Olafur Arnalds)

THE DYING OF THE LIGHT(music Johann Johannsson)
by mish 2019

original artwork by mish

THE DYING OF THE LIGHT(music Johann Johannsson)

BEFORE THE WIND HAS EXHAUSTED ITS SONG (music: Ludovico Einaudi and Max Richter)

poem by mish 2024
original artwork by mish

BEFORE THE WIND HAS EXHAUSTED ITS SONG (music: Ludovico Einaudi and Max Richter)

AUTUMN 
 poem by mish

(music Olafur Arnalds)
original artwork by mish

AUTUMN (music Olafur Arnalds)

THE CEASEFIRE  poem by mish 2024 

...original artwork by mish...

THE CEASEFIRE

A RUSTY KEY TO FREEDOM

Perhaps the world is otherwise
A world inside a mirror
Upside down and inside out
Perhaps when stung by bees we, some-miracle-how, become sweeter
Perhaps mosquitoes when they suck blood, leave behind the sounds of blood that they have thieved from other lives; 
Leave behind the remnants of the crashing, pulsing waves of other hearts, other loves, other madness, other anguish, other bliss
Leave knowledge in the form of a small red itchy lump
And a fever with mirage
Leave behind the answer that we yearn for echoing through our veins
Leave a resurrection song in a pitch we’ve yet to understand
Perhaps the ragged notches left by fruit bats on ripe red plums is in fact a message of thanks, a note to say I love you
Perhaps when the boat sinks the rats, in their mercy, will teach us how to swim
Perhaps that gnawing fear we feel at every waking breath is a large and rusty key to freedom

(mish 2019)

A RUSTY KEY TO FREEDOM (music Olafur Arnalds... artwork by mish)

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED (poem by mish 2024) artwork by mish


If I have learned from life one thing it is this: that there will always be another war…
Before the last remnants of the last war are swept from the gutters
Before the eaves are unblocked of human flesh and bone and tears
Before the ink has dried on a history that is weighted down with lies
Before the makeshift hearses, groaning their quailing way, arrive at mass graves that stink of rotting hope
Before the next propaganda movie… in which the cavalry always arrives on time to disappear the evil foe forever and love wins out and peace reigns victorious, and everyone is white, and fat and jolly, living happily ever after… is completed, war machines will have drummed up the next bloody march
Printing leaflets of hype
Stitching uniforms for children 
Stamping insignias onto cloth in murderous layers to classify the sacrificed-to-come
Smelting scrap to fashion missiles with names like ‘Angel of Peace’ or ‘Amy-Lee’s Dream’
Pounding sulfurous powders into volatile reasons

And tongues will whip up arguments once again
And inflated accounts that are anchored in fear will create brand new targets to torture
And again poisoned whispers will pave trails for tanks
And birds will dread the heavens
And fish will pray, in earnest, to drown
And, cameras to the ready, explosions will devour peace…again

(mish 2024)

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

THE WOMAN WHO WAS MUSIC 

The Woman Who Was Music boarded the train with the other beggars
and began to sing
hauntingly
of death
and of wonder
and of blood’s crimson quake

She stood fierce like an epic
Both startling and deviant
Like a witch or a goddess
Lashing madly at the moon

Within moments of her song’s commence the passengers on the train flowed in and through the woman without resistance
(without a map)
thrilled to be ensnared by her enchantment
The battles inside their heads relaxed
And relief settled comfortably in the pungent sultry air
Clouds of warm breath soothed a sea of jagged faces
And the inside of everyone’s mouth became moist and pink as though it had never known a desert 

The metal on the train,
(its walls and its railings)
began humming like a tuning fork
as if an ancient spell was making its way back into the collective consciousness
stanza by stanza
note by note 
(Bubble, bubble
Toil and trouble)  
And mythic snakes uncoiled from rigid groins to begin sliding and swaying like Salome before the beheading

The Woman Who Was Music transformed their heartbeats into longing
And their dreams into mutinies
And their limits into wings
She awoke them from their apathy
She propelled them to the light

and then she left 

abandoning them cruelly to an intolerable silence

In their mercy they threw at her the sweetest of their breads
In their guilt they hurled the stones

(mish 2019) ...artwork by mish...

THE WOMAN WHO WAS MUSIC (Max Richter)

An Artist's Muse
poem by mish (2019) music by Tim Story
original artwork by mish

AN ARTIST'S MUSE (music by Tim Story)

AND THEN WILL COME THE FLOOD poem by mish

original artwork by mish

AND THEN WILL COME THE FLOOD (Music Max Richter)

POEM 
PALESTINE'S ODE TO VICTOR JARA...

original artwork by mish

PALESTINE'S ODE TO VICTOR JARA

FOR YOU AND I

YOU'RE NOT LOVELY (music Ólafur Arnalds - Beth's theme)

THE PEOPLE FROM CHINA short story by mish 2017

THE PEOPLE FROM CHINA (MUSIC Max Richter - On Reflection)

ENDINGS (music Johann Johannson)

I AM HERE BESIDE YOU WAITING poem by mish 2018

I AM HERE BESIDE YOU WAITING (music Christian Lindquist)

AN ORDINARY DEATH
poem by mish 2019

original artwork by mish

AN ORDINARY DEATH (music  Evelyn Stein · Fredrik Boström)

My name is Mish Kanafani مش كنفاني. I am an author and visual artist. I love what I do. Check out my Facebook page: Mishmosh Poetry and Art for the poetry's written word. Also Instagram Mishmosh poetry and art...

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