Ahmad Majid is an Iraqi-Canadian poet who has been performing hip-hop and spoken word all over Canada for the last decade. His style combines intricate rhyme schemes with important social/political issues.

Rites of Passage

The journey to make it here is a right of passage in itself

Look within your humanity, to see if it’s within your capacity to help

My parents came for a better future, for my siblings and myself

We’re more similar than different, seeking peace happiness and health

 

It can sometimes be hard to tell, the intentions behind the question of “where are you from?” //

Cause to me standing here, staring up, I do see the same sun

While there’s blood running through my veins, I seek change until the job is done//

When I think of this human race, I’ve concluded theirs only one

 

What journey it was, to cross these vast oceans

Whether boat or plane, you can’t explain that kind of devotion, simply with words spoken//

But when you feel you don’t fit in, all is wrong and you are broken

When you can find a sense of belonging, it’s astonishing how your spirit becomes golden

 

We are interlinked and woven, all throughout this old history

Contributing cultures, we can see the effects visibly

Knowledge being exported, past borders with it’s delivery

As if Al Khawarizmi didn’t produce Algebra which would go on to improve all our lives significantly

 

I appreciate your ethnicity, cause together we create this beautiful mosaic

Be the difference you wanna see, now is the time to really try change it

A divided planet, I can’t stand it, so lets pull it back to the basics

If you give me a chance, I will plant it, and I promise it will grow into an oasis

 

I pull it back to my basics, a younger me, I left the UAE in an event so sudden

When I arrived in school, I had opinion too, and I’d love to contribute to the discussion

Maybe I sang a different tune, but I knew down deep inside that our differences could amount to nothing

The divide was so clear, so much fear, though I really wished it wasn’t

 

I try to keep it constructive, but being caught between two worlds sometimes feels like being torn apart from within//

There’s a twisting agony of not being comfortable in your own skin

A whirlwind of emotions can make your entire existence spin

So please I’m trying to build this bridge, I just don’t know where to begin

 

Thank you for letting me in, a chance to lend to you my experience

I’m scared to let my guard down, which is why when you see me in the streets, I look so serious

But really I’m just new to this town, my soul is oh so curious

I don’t know anyone around, so please stop fearing this

 

My parents came to seek a better life, and escape all the previous hate that they faced

Mom had a head full of worries, and dad a mouth full of wisdom as they navigated this landscape

They raised me, yet I was their compass, together we ploughed this pathway

I needed them for survival, yet they needed me to communicate and translate

 

How will you be remembered in history, we’re leaving a legacy that we can’t restart

Be smart with the remaining time left, these days we’re flying off those charts

A brilliant collage of cultures, when combined creates this radiant form of art

Reclaim your humanity, search within your hearts capacity, and start to understand that we’re stronger together than we are apart

 

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A Poet Without Silence

the sound of the sunrise shines through my eyes only to awaken me and despise

the day that lays ahead of  my demise, i can smell my grave, i should say my good byes

but at this time I feel the most comfort

forget the war crimes, and rest the mind that is alert

my nose touches the dirt, as I’m praying for peace

and it's hard to feel self worth, cause I’m living in the middle east

the same shirt I’ve bin wearing for the last week straight

no one around me is staring, they've got their own escape

 

but that feeling that is great comes to a screeching halt

the sound of the war drum, is pounding harder then my heart

its like their playing darts and my population is the bulls eye

where do i even start, I hate the sound of that missiles cry

i hate all the lies, as well as when concrete collides

but what i hate the most is the great divide

no one seems to smile and it always reeks like gas 

i'm on my own aisle, and waiting for the explosions to pass

don't hide near glass, is the common code

for when the bombs do blast, the windows chips to your skin will corrode

the kids are getting old, and nothing seems to change

if these are my cards, I fold, there’s nothing left in this age

 

My blood is boiled by the rage, and I feel frustration

It feels like a cage, but It was the cradle of civilization

it's hard to even gauge, cause there’s so much devastation

we're burning like sage, no room for creation

 

i rip out a page and I write viciously

I try to be frank cause this is my therapy

i once heard of a girl of Jewish ancestry

she introduced you to her world, and it became a legacy

she talked about the tanks, and the weaponry

and the clink clank of them armoured heavily

I’m walking a plank, it's a death penalty

so that's what i do to try and live free

 

but it's hard to concentrate, or even to motivate

when the shower  of rockets, makes your conscious suffocate

sometimes I hear them, and their really really close

and yes, I fear them cause i don't want to be a ghost

 

all I have is that silence when the noise collapses

i don't want to get violent, I have dreams of palaces and mansions

just give me a chance, this isn't a rant, 

it's a desperate plea for humanity, I’m takin a stance

cause I’m sick of watching people die by violence

and I’m really sick of waiting for it to become silent

 

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Turtle Island

 

From turtle island to the sands of ancient Babylon

both of our peoples have a history of times when our foundations were strong

 

now it’s been rocked, made to feel like we don’t belong

discrimination must stop, before it’s passed on

spreads like a disease, making it hard to breathe

the anxiety creeps up, making you feel weak at the knees

 

I know first hand that you can feel incomplete, when the glares are pointed in your direction

whenever your made to feel like the other,  it puts your self-worth into question

but now that I’m older, and I’ve learned a few lessons

I’ve been able to zoom out on a system full of oppression

 

Systemic racism is institutionalized from a very young age

from Disney movies, to playful caricatures, those racialized dolls will only constrain?

 

it becomes like training, playing cowboys and Indians

the bad guys are always dark-skinned, and the winners, always look like they descended from England

getting a little older for children,  sports becomes ingrained in their essence

cheer for the Cleveland Indians, Chicago Blackhawks, or the Washington Redskins

 

The dehumanization of a culture gets perpetuated in the news

it doesn’t help when racist teachers aren’t screened for their views

presenting false truths can make children hate their identity

especially when they are addressed by peers, strictly based on their ethnicity

 

forcing anti-social tendencies, how do you reverse an attempt to eliminate a culture?

It’s got to start with examining the foundations of the crooked structure

 

they tell you to be patriotic and you need to be proud of your history

like Columbus Day being celebrated, and his mission considered a victory

 

we can’t stand for that bigotry, we have to see what the future holds in store

got to become active like the principles of Idle No More

we’re fighting a war and it starts on the inside

look within yourself and see what you can find

 

sharpen up your mind, and see through there silly polly-tricks

policies that are problematic unless you are in the social class that is dominant

no money for social improvement, but of course, build another monument

Residential schools and internment camps, welcome to the land of the tolerant 

 

O-Canada, a home built on native land.

I’m grateful for my allies, with whom I can take a stand

towards policies of injustice, we need to create a plan

It has to start with unity, towards your fellow women and man

 

call them brothers and sisters, see them as friends you haven’t yet made

these values they call modern come from the old traditional indigenous ways

 

I’m so thankful to breath this clean air, and have the ability visit all these beautiful rivers and forests in an instant

If you come from European descent, what gives you the right to be an immigration critic

in the system of colonial creation, no one wants to be reduced to just a statistic

So only to Canada’s First Nations will I acknowledge that I’m thankful to be an immigrant in your district