Homeland
The book contains 111 poems written by 45 poets from 27 countries and published in London, England, in 2014. I was happy to find the poem of Toeti Heraty, the only Indonesian poet in the anthology.
The Kurds have become a species of bird. They traverse the tearing of the yellowing pages of history, wandering about. Kajal Ahmad, the Kurdish woman poet, presupposes this in her poem, Birds. She emphasizes in another stanza: Ya, orang Kurdi adalah burung!/dan bahkan ketika/tiada tempat tersisa/tiada perlindungan bagi rasa sakitnya/mereka berpaling kepada ilusi bepergian/antara iklim hangat dan dingin Tanah Air (Yes, Kurds are birds! / and even when / thereโs nowhere left / no refuge for their pain / they turn to the illusion of travelling / between the warm and the cold climes of their homeland).
Kajal was born in Kirkuk, a city in Kurdistan, a country of her dreams, which is still in dispute with Iraq. Now she lives in Jordan, a foreign land.