The Poetteer

Hello Poetteers, It is Her Olives 6th book anniversary! We Are Palestine We are zataar and zaytoon, land of the almonds and apricots, figs and oranges, watermelon and cheese, tasting its sweetness, enjoying mint tea on the balcony, connected to the roots of Palestine. I’ve created an anniversary gift that includes extra poems, prompts and a glossary. When you purchase Her Olives , this month only, message me on instagram with your receipt and I’ll send you the anniversary gift. Stay inspired, Fida

Hello Poetteers, As people read HER OLIVES I realized I should have added a glossary. Here are two new poems to help you better understand the other poems. Olives in Arabic is zaytoon Olives are this dark green color of brownish green of nature and it's fruit also used as an oil Olives are bitter but balances a meal Olives are from the Mediterranean and all the countries that border it it's the skin tone of people from that area. Olives are a symbol of peace. Za'atar is thyme a plant connected to the roots of Palestine Za'atar is a mixture of herbs to enjoy on bread baked similarly to pizza or dipped with olive oil or a seasoning for hummus. Love, Fida  I realized Her Olives should have a glossary, download it here . 

Hello Poetteers, Today is the 3rd book anniversary of my poetry book, Her Olives ! With that, I give you a new poem. Traditional Dress She is given a gift of a dress and thought of it only as that loving the design on the cloth not knowing the depth of the embroidery  but she walks in tall and graceful her dress flows from her broad shoulders to her feet in black cloth the cloth of the chest and arms embroidered with colored threads called tatreez she comes to find each design hand stitched the variation in tatreez holds different symbols there is also variations of the traditional dress from different parts of Palestine She barely scratched the surface of knowing the stories behind the designs all with stories and history of Palestine. stay inspired, Fida I realized Her Olives should have a glossary, you can find it here.  

Hello Poetteers,  Today is a special day. My second poetry book, Her Olives, was published two years ago today.  --- What People Have To Share --- (You can find Medeia blogging at http://www.medeiasharif.com ) (Picture by http://feonua.tumblr.com ) Have you read Her Olives? Let me know. Buy a copy here .  Love, Fida 

Hello Poetteers,  I thought since I shared some of my relations with you I would share with you how it is going. This past month went well. As you can see from my past posts I've read 7 books. I'll see how this next month goes and maybe up my reading goal.  I spent the month reading through and light editing my wip, Louder Alone. This month i hope to do some more in-depth editing.  A personal goal of mine is to bring yoga back into my life and be more consistent with it. I heard of Yoga with Adriene and have done a few of her videos in the past. I saw she was doing a 30 day yoga camp and participated. It helped me so much and I see improvement in myself and it inspired me to want to continue with yoga.  I've been following Alex Beadon for a while. You should check her out. She has this energy that inspires and motivates me to focus and work on my passion.  Last but not least, I have a poetry series going on, on Instagram along with a ph...

Hello February and Poetteers, I finally read and finished Where She Went by Gayle Forman. I was reading it at the bookstore, so of course music was playing while I was reading. As I reached the end, the last 20 pages, the perfect song came on. You would know what I mean if you read the book. The song playing was Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding. Of course I had to use the song as my caption for an instagram pic. I did enjoy the whole book, it was interesting to see where the characters went since the last book. I don't know if it is because it has been a long while since I read the last book but the characters seemed different, but still good. There was something about the story that inspired me to write poetry. I'm currently reading Stray by Elissa Sussman. My next read I'm hoping will be Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys.  Thank you, Fida P.S. Her Olives reaches it's 2nd book birthday on Feb 13th. I would love to see pictures of you read...

Hello Poetteers, You talk about falafel like your own people made it I understand you love them I hope you continue to love them but know it didn't originate from your own it originated from another group of people whose streets are filled with vendors and fresh smells and spice whose walls hold so much history whose land tries to wave its own flag. Love, Fida For more poems like this, check out Her Olives. 

Hello Poetteers, I finally got my hands on and read the first volume of Ms. Marvel, No Normal. I don't really read comics but it was cool to read of a muslim character. It wasn't just a side characteristic. It was a big part of what she did, what she is doing, and what she wants to do, etc. I can't wait to read the other comics about her. My WIP is taking it slow. I'm still on 17k and my goal is still 20k by the end of this week. Other than that, a year ago today I self published my second poetry collection, HER OLIVES! Thanks to Tessa for the picture submission! Love, Fida # Poetteers

Hello readers, What I'm Writing : Like I said last week, I have a new idea for a story. I'm writing it but I'm so much slower than I usually am. I don't like the thought that keeps coming back saying the idea isn't good enough. But I know it is a good idea. I'm currently at 6.6k. My goal is to try for 14k by next week. What Else : Since HER OLIVES will be one in less than a month, on Feb 13th, I'm doing a little fun project for it. And I need your help. My message on tumblr: "My book, HER OLIVES, reaches its 1st year of publication in a month. I would like to do something special. I want to put together a collage of you guys reading HER OLIVES. Can you do that and tag it with #FidasOlives? Thank you!" If you don't have a copy yet you can buy here . Love, Fida

Hello readers, I finally read The Kite Runner! The descriptions and writing was beautiful. I love how the title means something in the story shares a moment a memory the kite runner you should see it in mornings in Jenin. I may have shed some tears But I didn't cry reading either one of their stories I was sad and shocked But I grew up knowing the truth knowing their stories while others didn't it is my burden and my duty to know them. What I'm Writing : The short story idea is on hold. I got a new idea for a new story on the theme of hijab. I'm excited! I'm already at 2k. My goal is to have 10k by the end of this week. What Else : A month from today, Her Olives will have been published for a year! Love and thank you, Fida # Poetteers

Hello Poetteers, • HER OLIVES has been out in the wild for a week! • I didn't say this in the review , but it took me three tries to finally read ZEITOUN. I'm really glad I did, I really love it. • on both days of the weekend I attempted an internet free day, but lasted four to five hours both times. • I finished reading THE PROBABILITY OF LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. I know what book will be the comp for MAYBE LOVING YOU. • my friend is attempting to write in Arabic to me. • whatever coffee my dad got from the ROYAL CUP is very yummy! Love and thank you, Fida

Hello Poetteers, A while back I was at goodwill and got some books. One was ZEITOUN. And I finished it earlier this week. Here's my thoughts: This book has annotations. Mostly in the beginning, then stopped. It's a humbling feeling seeing Quran verses in this book. Seeing someone love the words of the Quran. There is lots of annotations about dismissing instinct vs wanting to give into it. This person knows what to highlight. I like the quote, "if a sailor finds the right port or right woman he'll drop anchor." I loved reading the story of how Zeitoun and Kathy met. "She had a wide, shy, electric smile. He wanted that. He wanted to make her smile like that. He wanted to be the reason." I really loved reading her friend's and Kathy's convert stories. It will make you fall in love with Islam. It did for me even though I am a Muslim. It's all in how the message is given. Seeing it made me smile and tear up. I love what he did with the fishes. Hi...

You know my love for poetry. You may know or not know of my love for Palestine. I combined both into a beautiful book collection. I put my heart out there more than any other poem. It's about struggle. Hope. Victory. I hope you come celebrate its release with me. Goodreads | CreateSpace | Amazon | Barnes & Noble Love and thank you, Fida

Hello Poetteers, Her Olives comes out tomorrow!! Here are some behind the scenes: 1. Other titles I was thinking of was JASMINE AND OLIVES, JASMINE AND HER OLIVES or HER OLIVES. 2. My sister almost made a cover for the book. 3. It took me three years to write all the poems. Poems require inspiration not force. 4. My drafts went from a collection of poems in order they were written to a story. Then back to a different order of collection will see when the book is released! 5. Until two months before publication I was still adding poems. The gray area of advantage and disadvantage of self publishing. 6. This was mostly inspired through twitter. The other half is my mind. I didn't meet anyone hinted in my poems. Except for my dad and grandmothers obviously.  Now onto the blessings of the week: • Had an awesome weekend on twitter with the Love-a-Thon. • My mom's homemade bread. • Last but not least the wake up calls/reality checks God gives us with all these news of ...

Hello Poetteers, As you know HER OLIVES will be released on Tues and I thought I should do some promo, enjoy! Palestine Her olives sought the wind from mornings in Jenin, habibi (my love). Travel From rooftops of Tehran to mornings in Jenin three cups of tea habibi (my love) reclaim your heart. Love and thank you, Fida

Hello Poetteers, It's day two of the blog tour. Besides the cover and poems I needed a title, too. Here's how I came to it: Jasmine and olives two beautiful things that make up Palestine Jasmine and her olives sounds like a picture book Her olives referring to Palestine as her and the olives, olives to me as her and olives as my poems. P.S. HER OLIVES is releasing exactly a week from today. Yet today is someone else's release day. After reading the six chapter sample on wattpad I knew I would have to buy it. SOLVING FOR EX is an awesome book by Leigh Ann Kopans and you can enter a giveaway! a Rafflecopter giveaway Love and thank you, Fida

Hello Poetteers, It's the end of the blogfest, yet you can always go back. The link is open until the book's release. Today is the start of the blog tour. Finding the Right Girl First she was just a drawing changed to her dress was short needing too be modest found one but her seating inappropriate found a third long sleeved, skirt wearing girl in boots if you look closely she even looks Arab prefect the one for HER OLIVES. Love and thank you, Fida

Hello Poetteers, We have reached the last day of OLIVE JAZZ, sadness. Today's prompt is simple. Write about the country you're from. You can always go back to old prompts ( day 4 , 3 , 2 , 1 ) and respond to them separately. Or... You can be cool and respond to all of them in one poem. Thank you, Fida

Hello Poetteers, We are reaching towards our last day of this poetry blogfest. Today will be Two for Thursday. Your second to last prompt is to write about a struggle and victory or struggle vs. victory, anything like that. You try and try keep being put down but finally one small thing done more done until something big you keep going. Option two is inspired by Janet Gurtler. Write about things you thought were true. Things I thought were true that I could know only one language that all flowers are real that your actual heart looks like a heart that everything is good Things I thought were true that I was confined that I couldn't get better Things I thought were true that my faith was only about physical things that love was hard to get. P.S. I'm adding new goal. I want to reach 15k in my WIP by the end of the week. Practically have three days left. Yet my WIP is already at 10k. That means I have to write 1k one day and 2k over the next two ...

Hello Poetteers, Today is day three of OLIVE JAZZ. The prompt is write about a stranger and an enemy. If you want to go back: Day Two . Day One . My goal is to write everyday and edit at least a page a day of MAYBE LOVING YOU. I finished my writing for today. I still need to edit today. I did get four pages done yesterday. P.S. You should check out the BLITZ team. In small, you spread love to bloggers. One blog I think you should check out is Cafuné , if you love poems, bookstore observations and intimate things. Love and thank you, Fida