RAFEEF ZIADAH is a Canadian-Palestinian spoken word artist and activist. Her debut CD Hadeel is dedicated to Palestinian youth, who still fly kites in the face of F16 bombers, who still remember the names of their villages in Palestine and still hear the sound of Hadeel (cooing of doves) over Gaza. (YouTube description of her performance) Though this particular poem is composed after the 2008-2009 attack on Gaza, it resonates for all of us again and again -- 2012 and now 2014 wars -- reminding us of the continued brutalization of Gaza through blockades and bombings. On a personal note, I was excited that I would be able to listen to her in a show organised in Ramallah, when we found that Israeli authorities stopped her at the Ben Gurion airport and sent her back. Prabir Purkayastha