Day 18: Walk with poetry
Hussain Shah Rezaie, refugee writer and editor
\Follow the path of the rising moon. (Photo by Hussain Shah Rezaie)
The Way of Poetry
The day will come Walk this winter
The day will come End this night
The day will come Settle this storm
I wrote these verses a few months ago when the hope of ending my decade-long limbo as a refugee ignited within me, with my sponsorship to New Zealand in progress. (See my recent Substack post, Shift in Weight). Yet my hope remained deeply ingrained in doubt—reasonable doubt that it may not happen. After nearly ten years of sheer despair, every hope seemed a lie and every lie felt true.
Writing, poetry in particular, has become my way to fight back against difficult thoughts, feelings, and circumstance. Over time, it has protected me from losing my mind – loosening my hope, even saving my life. I know some refugees who failed to find a way out of our shared difficulties now sleep under pile of wet soil.
The act of writing requires courage — but in doing it you acquire courage.
That bring us to my #AcWriMoments prompt. We are all bugged by difficulties whether small or big. Some face struggles in their relationship with others around them or with themselves — if not their present selves, their past selves. Your academic life may give little to no freedom in expressing these difficulties. If you cannot express them, you certainly suppress them.
I invite you to walk your difficulties on the page. Let them take form under your pen. Give them a garment of poetry. Have them wear your favorite color. What seemed ugly is now beautiful. What felt disturbing is now soothing. When I wrote my poem, “The Way of Poetry,” I found hope in what was hopeless for me.
Now that you have done it, you can keep your poem to yourself. But there’s a new level of courage and healing in sharing your struggle with others. Of course, it should be in a place you feel understood. I hope our comments section feels to you like a safe place to share.
You can find more of my writing in my new Substack newsletter, Walk With Me. Through poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction, I tell my story. My story of escaping war in Afghanistan and living nearly a decade long in limbo as a refugee in Indonesia. Join me as I make my way from Indonesia to my new home, Aotearoa New Zealand, where I will arrive on November 29, 2023 to begin my new life as a permanent resident of a country I’ve never seen. Walk with me.
Hussain Shah Rezaie, refugee writer and editor
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Thank you for the honor of sharing this prompt with us, Hussain. The most noble thing a person can do, in my opinion, is to keep holding onto hope and looking for (and creating!) little bits of beauty even in the midst of years of long, hard struggle. I love your line about how writing doesn’t just take courage; it also *adds* courage: the act of expressing ourselves makes us braver. Your prompt helps us see how no matter our circumstances, we can each draw on even the difficult experiences to find inspiration for our work.
We’ll be watching with admiration from around the world as you embark on the next stage of your journey! Cheering you on and wishing you well from Durham, North Carolina, USA. 🙏
Such a beautiful post and prompt, Hussain. Follow the path of the rising moon!