Featured Writer: Three poems by Samay Hamed

A medical doctor by profession, Dr. Samay Hamed is a well-known poet, writer, melody composer and TV director from Afghanistan. He is the winner of nine national awards and two international awards: the International Free Press Award 2003 from the Committee to Protect Journalists New York and the Kurt Tocholsky prize 2010 from Swedish PEN. Hamed has 34 published books. He is a member of Danish PEN and a key founder of Afghanistan PEN. Below are three poems from his most recent collection, Writing with Eraser. 

ART

Art had always been a twine
One sister had been a prostitute in golden
castles
and the other a crazy girl escaping from mass
rape in streets
mass rape of politicians, marketers and lazy
readers
Art had always been a twine
One brother had been an official spokesman
The other a street singer not singing for public
Murmuring for hidden ears in the air
Art had always been a twine
And none of them are better than other
Just one has a temporary job
And the second a long-life mission

When you have no political power

When you have no political power
Make new jokes on warlords
and say to your shadow in silence
When terrorists are drinking your blood with
their iron straw
Write new poems with red pens
When you have no political power to
challenge corrupt dinosaurs
Borrow money from your friend
and buy a bottle of forgetfulness Wesley
When you got drunk,
stand on a chair like statue of a hero and
shout:
I will change this country!
Spit on the dark poster of the sky and shout
louder:
You bastard night! Where have you hidden
the sunflower of dreams?
Show me your diamond teeth to break them!
When you have no political power
Sit down on your broken shoulder like a
destroyed monument
And watch the window TV
with its boring four-season daily soup!

Even if you are deadly upset

Even if you are deadly upset
Don’t lie to yourself
Death is not better than this hard life
Death is like itself
It enters when all doors are turning into walls
forever
Your life is hard,
but still had not turned your bones into ashes
Shake your soul and make a cup of hot hope
Life is not like death
even when you are not willing to live