#George Abraham

[thenextdoormatilda]

–Palestinian poet and editor of Mizna, George Abraham.

[geryone]

“ars poetica with parallel dimensions” by George Abraham from We Call to the Eye & the Night: Love Poems by Writers of Arab Heritage

[soracities]

Sarah Aziza, in a series of letters with George Abraham (excerpt from Nov. 2023), pub. The Nation [ID'd]

[havingapoemwithyou]

Love Letter to the Eve of the End of the World by George Abraham

[abellinthecupboard]

LIVE LAUGH LOVE IS LOVE

Live más, I tell myself while 69ing a man, outed eventually as a zionist, a LOVE IS LOVE type who, mid-climax, says look at us! Co-existing! as he drinks of me, bloodless, worships the Christ-In-A-Cracker my body had become in his hold. I leave before he could enter me, resist the colonial metaphor at the tip of my tongue, but he throbs in every kegel of regret for the whole day, and although the sun's out and the leaves are small songs in the wind of a New England fall, all I want is to be a clot in a shitty someone's day, the way Joan Rivers dropped dead after saying, on national TV, Palestinians deserve everything that happened to them—israel's bombings, she meant. After I die, I want to be a difficult ancestor: the kind of ghost summoned for depressive episodes inside a Taco Bell, or when you, my future great-grand-something, want your racist professor to stub their toe. But also the one who'll haunt until you say everything I couldn't in my life: I'm sorry or I'm in love with you or let me be lonely tonight, I'll be okay come morning, I promise. I'll haunt you until you call your Mom for no reason in particular, forgive her even on the saddest, most sun-filled days. You'll mourn your homeland with your whole self, too. Won't succumb to their GOOD VIBES ONLYs while americans end another world. Again. It's how you'll learn return: this grief and your most impossible mothers. If you find poetry, ignore the bones they've written into good, the temptation for French anything, all the LIVE LAUGH LOVE signs disguised as poems— read our greats, al-Maari and further back, and learn you come from a lineage of poets who mourned the world because they chose to live, seeing it on its own terms: the laughter in slaughter, the horsemeat disguised as seasoned beef. When you give them your least coherent griefs, they'll tell you write joy instead. Shoot them a bird— their world is full of illiterates disguised as writers, who'll leave you banging at their gates, begging: I want to live, I just want to live, I want to live, I want—

— George Abraham, published on twitter (source)

[goreprofonde]

It began with a need to be seen. Now you’ve made a garden in the seeing of me. Who Midased the touch golden? Who echoed the body a dis-remembrance? Was it me? From the water’s perspective, Narcissus was a failed experiment in surveillance: gays into me/gaze into me.

- George Abraham, To the Watchlist.

[firstfullmoon]

George Abraham, “ars poetica in which every pronoun is a Free Palestine”

[yourdailyqueer]

George Abraham

Gender: Non binary (they/he)

Sexuality: Queer

DOB: N/A  

Ethnicity: Palestinian

Nationality: American

Occupation: Poet, writer

[librarycards]

For those who engage w/ poetry and poetics in the face of injustice, a new issue of Exceptional Poetry, which I write as associate editor of Frontier Poetry, is out, with some space for Palestinian poetics and other entries related to power, violence, and epistemic in/justice.

[dk-thrive]

the only love worth dying for is a love you can return to

— George Abraham, from "well… *grabs wine glass* when the world ends, i hope we go down dancing ahha!" (Underblong, Summer 2019) (via Read a Little Poetry)

[oldwinesoul]

“In my culture, we know death intimately. In Arabic, the highest expression of love is the phrase

"ya'aburnee" Translated "you bury me" - It means “I love you so much, I'd sooner die than bury you” It was used by mothers in our lineage who were so used to losing their young in war; In my culture, we cannot talk about love without speaking death's name”

// George Abraham, "Untitled," published in Black Napkin Press

[fiercynn]

palestinian poets: george abraham

george abraham (they/he/هو) is a palestinian american poet, performance arist, and writer who was born and raised on unceded timucuan lands (jacksonville, FL). their debut poetry collection birthright (button poetry) won the arab american book award and the big other book award, and was a lambda literary award finalist. he is also the author of the chapbooks al youm and the specimen's apology. their collaborations include co-editing a palestinian poetry anthology with noor hindi (haymarket books, 2025), and a performance art project titled EVE with fargo nissim tbakhi. 

they are a recipient of fellowships from kundiman, the arab american national museum, the boston foundation, the national performance network, and the MAP fund, and more. their writing has appeared in poetry magazine, the nation, the american poetry review, guernica, the baffler, the paris review, mizna, and many other journals and anthologies. a graduate of swarthmore college and harvard university, they have taught at emerson college, and are currently a litowitz MFA+MA candidate in poetry at northwestern university. he is also currently executive editor of the whiting award-winning journal mizna.

you can follow them on twitter @IntifadaBatata.

IF YOU READ JUST ONE POEM BY GEORGE ABRAHAM, MAKE IT THIS ONE

OTHER POEMS ONLINE THAT I LOVE BY GEORGE ABRAHAM

Field Notes on Terror & Beginnings at poetry daily

Love Letter to the Eve of the End of the World at the margins

Of Nation, at rusted radishes: beirut literary and art journal

Searching for a Palestinian After at the nation

Stage Directions for a Representation in which Eve and Adam travel through their first checkpoint at mosaic theatre company

the ghosts of the dead sea are rising at the drift

ars poetica in which every pronoun is FREE PALESTINE at the margins

“from UNIVERSAL THEORY IN WHICH EVERY FAILED ATTEMPT AT LOVE IS A SOULMATE FROM AN ALTERNATE TIMELINE” at fiyah literary magazine

Ode to My Swollen, Mono-Infected Spleen at brooklyn poets

The Olive Tree Speaks of Deforestation to my body at crabfat magazine

arab/queer vs. Imaginary at shade literary arts

self-portrait with second-degree sunburn at

[ summer / winter ] is the worst time to lose a [ country / lover ] at wildness

maqam of moonlight, for the wandering at the rumpus

against perturbation at the scores

apology, at cordite poetry review

i also adore this 2021 essay of abraham's at guernica magazine called teaching poetry in the palestinian apocalypse: towards a collective, lyric "i".

[geryone]

Love Letter to the Eve of the End of the World, George Abraham

[soracities]

Sarah Aziza, in a series of letters with George Abraham (excerpt from Nov. 2023), pub. The Nation [ID'd]

[havingapoemwithyou]

Searching for a Palestinian After by George Abraham

“The past is a future we return to” —Fargo Tbakhi

[thenextdoormatilda]

From "Taking Back Jerusalem" by Palestinian Poet, George Abraham