Published in Overland Issue 240 Spring 2020 · Uncategorized I woke up this morning Omar Sakr and asked the bird if it feels trapped by its song, by its language being known only as melody. Its eloquent speech ‘my home is endless and dying’ reduced to piping notes, a shrill ringtone. I am talking to myself. The birds are gone. This is the problem of poetry. We siren our warnings and the world drowns to the sound of our beautiful voices. I would not want it any other way. I love a good dirge. And I am tired of being told to claim my joy. What am I to do with happiness? Where on earth can happiness reside? An astonishing number of my family are dead. An astonishing number of my family are alive. I woke up for this morning song. Read the rest of Overland 240 If you enjoyed this piece, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four brilliant issues for a year Omar Sakr Omar Sakr is the author of two acclaimed poetry collections, These Wild Houses (Cordite, 2017) and The Lost Arabs (UQP, 2019) which won the 2020 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry. His debut novel, Son of Sin (2022) is out now. More by Omar Sakr › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 24 April 2025 · The university Why we need the National Code against gender-based violence in higher education Camille Schloeffel, Jessica Ison and Samantha Marshall As leaders in and advocates for the prevention of gender-based violence, we strongly support the National Code as a crucial step to push universities to act. Without enforcement of the National Code to ensure providers comply with its requirements, we are concerned that universities are still not doing enough, and students are bearing the consequences. 22 April 202522 April 2025 · The university Genocide showrooms: universities after Gaza Nick Riemer We should mostly be talking about the genocide in Palestine: the horrifying toll of bodies, the thousands or tens of thousands of amputees, the bereavement at a national scale, the gutting intergenerational trauma. In the face of all this, we should not have to talk about universities in the West. But nowhere in society has the breakdown of liberal institutions under Zionist pressure been faster or more obvious.
