Always ask yourself: ‘What will happen if I say nothing?’

“Let our silence grow with noise
as pregnant mothers grow with life.
Let our silence permeate these walls
as sunlight permeates a house.

Let the silence rise from unwatered graves
and craters left by bombs.
Let the silence rise from empty bellies
and surge from broken hearts.

The silence of the hidden and forgotten.
The silence of the battered and tortured.
The silence of the persecuted and imprisoned.
The silence of the hanged and massacred.

Loud as all the sounds can be,
let our silence be loud
so the hungry may eat our words,
and the poor may wear our words.

Loud as all the sounds can be,
let our silence be loud
so we may resurrect the dead
and give voice to the oppressed.

Our silence speaks.”

Kamand Kojouri

They want us to be afraid.
They want us to be afraid of leaving our homes,
to barricade our doors and hide our children.
They aim to make us fear life!

They want us to hate.
They want us to hate the other,
to practice aggression and promote oppression.
They aim to divide us all!

They want us to be inhuman.
They want us to throw out our kindness,
to conceal our love and bury our hope.
They aim to take our light!

They think their brick walls
will separate us.
They think their damned bombs
will defeat us.

They are so ignorant they don’t understand
that my soul and your soul are old friends.
They are so ignorant they don’t understand
that when they cut you, I bleed.

They are so ignorant they don’t understand
that we will never be afraid,
we will never hate,
and we will never be silent.
For life is only ours!

—Kamand Kojouri