“Every beautiful poem is an act of resistance,” writes Mahmoud Darwish. In these probing essays, Darwish, a voice of the Palestinian people and one of the most transcendent poets of his generation, interrogates the experience of occupation and the meaning of liberation. Calling upon myth, memory, and language, these essays delve into the poet’s experience of house arrest, his encounters with Israeli interrogators, and the periods he spent in prison. Meditative, lyrical, and rhythmic—Darwish gives absence a vital presence in these linked essays. is a moving and intimate account of the loss of homeland and, for many, of life inside the porous walls of occupation—no ordinary grief.