OKCIR: Omar Khayyam Center for Integrative Research

OKCIR: Omar Khayyam Center for Integrative Research in Utopia, Mysticism, and Science (Utopystics) (est. 2002) is an independent research and publishing initiative dedicated to exploring, in a simultaneously world-historical and self-reflective framework, the human search for a just global society. Since the world’s utopian, mystical, and scientific movements have been the primary sources of inspiration, knowledge, and/or practice in this field, OKCIR aims to critically reexamine the shortcomings and contributions of these world-historical traditions—seeking to clearly understand why they have failed to bring about the good society, and what each can integratively contribute toward realizing that end.

This 2009 (VII) special issue of Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge entitled “‘If I touch the Depth of Your Heart …’ : The Human Promise of Poetry in Memories of Mahmoud Darwish” is a commemorative issue on the life and poetry of the late Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, co-edited by a group of UMass Boston faculty and alumni. Mahmoud Darwish was and is regarded as Palestine’s national poet. He wrote the Palestinian Declaration of Palestine used for the formal establishment of the state of Palestine as declared on November 15, 1988, in Algiers, Algeria. Other than keynote opening statements, the special issue is comprised of a selected series of longer and shorter poems by Mahmoud Darwish, followed by commemorative poetry and essays/articles that directly or indirectly engage with Mahmoud Darwish’s work and/or the subject matter of his passion and love, Palestine and human rights and dignity.

For My Mother

— by Mahmoud Darwish

I long for my mother’s bread,
For my mother’s coffee,
For her touch.

Childhood memories grow up in me,
Day after day.

I must be worth my life
At the hour of my death,
Worth the tears of my mother.

And if I come back one day,
Take me as a veil to your eyelashes.

Cover my bones with the grass,
Blessed by your footsteps.

Bind us together
With a lock of your hair,
With a thread that trails from the back of your dress.

I might become immortal,
Become a God,
If I touch the depths of your heart.

If I come back,
Use me as wood to feed your fire,
As the clothesline on the roof of your house.

Without your blessing
I am too weak to stand.
I am old.

Give me back the star maps of childhood
So that I,
Along with the swallows,
Can chart the path
Back to your waiting nest.