I already know my words are going to fail me, but sometimes we must try. Safia, I woke up at 4 am this morning, after hearing your words yesterday, and laid there feeling into the well of grief I have about my relationship to Islam that I never processed because it’s never been quite articulated in the ways I heard reflected in your poems. Because of the immense gratitude I feel for Islam and for my family, and because I haven’t created the space within me where that can truly coexist with the very real pain. Your nuance, your grace in holding the contradictions, how you show that love and betrayal coexist in the people who love us - who tried to mold us into ‘good girls’ and instead.... Thank you for the words you weave and how the shame and the shaming and the love and the pain and the absence and the overbearing presence and the loneliness and the sandalwood and the smoke and the coriander and the onions and the henna speak to the profound beauty, the pain, the frustration.... it gives me permission to admit so much to myself 🫠🫠 I love you more than I can emote on social media. We are lucky to be alive at the same time as you. A true magician of language, an alchemist of experience, a great poet of our times who comes from a lineage of poets and magic, clearly!!! Thank you for sharing your gifts with us!!!! 🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷thank you for your beauty way