Due to recent system upgrades, IP Authentication is temporarily unavailable.
Please contact your organization's Subscription Administrator or write to hp2356@columbia.edu to request a temporary username and password for access.
Thank you for your patience.

See the Granger's Guided Tour here.

Our 2026 high school poetry contest is live. See guidelines here.

See our Compare Poems tool with examples of reading poems side-by-side.

Quick Search:

Khaled Mattawa

Khaled Mattawa was born in Benghazi, Libya, in 1964. Raised there until he was fifteen, in 1979 he emigrated to the U.S. and finished high school in Louisiana. He studied economics and political science at the University

Psalm for Arrival

by Khaled Mattawa (b. 1964)

1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2<author>
3  <person id="21566" sex="1" role="author">
4    <name>
5      <firstname>Khaled</firstname>
6      <lastname>Mattawa</lastname>
7    </name>
8    <life-events>
9      <text-value>(b. 1964)</text-value>
10    </life-events>
11    <biography>y</biography>
12  </person>
13</author>
14

When we find the sounds

for words we need, their death

rattle begins to echo in our throats.

Memory creeps up on old sentiments,

finds them lurking like blind fish

in the twilight of our blood.

Dead and living on—ancient prophecies
or frozen microbes—something we disavow
continues to feed on us.

Click here for complete poem

Poets Book of Days

April 21

Charlotte Brontë born, 1816

View Calendar of Days

Poetry Trivia

Question:

Over whose grave did an unknown friend scrawl, in coal: "Reader, I am to let thee know, / Donne's body only lies below; / For could the grave his soul comprise, / Earth would be richer than the skies"?

Answer

John Donne.

Previous Trivia Questions

Find us on :