Enemy of the Sun Poetry of Palestinian Resistance

In 1971, a poem entitled Enemy of the Sun was found among George Jackson’s belongings after his death. Though attributed to Jackson, the poem was penned by Palestinian poet Sameeh Al-Qassem.

Originally published by Drum & Spear, Enemy of the Sun: Poetry of Palestinian Resistance links twelve poets working in a poetics of refusal and of hope. Bearing witness to decades of occupation, diaspora, and imprisonment, the collection offers a call for change.

In each poem is a whole life—joy, love, beauty, rage, sorrow, suffering—and in each life is a record of resistance: the traces of a people who refuse to leave their homeland. In the intertwined histories of this book is a story of solidarity between oppressed peoples: from Palestine to South Africa to Algeria to Vietnam to the United States.