Water Your Flowers With Love is a collection of poems covering topics from grief and exile to tenderness and moral urgency, all centered around the notion that faith in love is crucial. What inspired this particular collection of poetry?

In today’s chaotic and at times dark world, we are all in need of a hopeful message. The collection has been inspired by and derived from my personal life experiences and today’s events and trends that shape our world. I wrote Water Your Flowers With Love hoping to raise awareness of today’s issues that still affect so many people, and children, and to portray that through love and compassion we can do better. The idea is that within all the darkness and chaos in the world, there is still light within each one of us, and together we can create a better world. The collection aims to invite readers to look beyond themselves into our world and also at what we all share as humans. It portrays the power of love and compassion and spreads a message of hope.

The collection often returns to children affected by war and displacement. What draws you to that perspective?

Children are the flowers of the world. They shape our future; they are our gold. We owe it to them, for the future, for humanity, to make sure they have the right to live, laugh, play, and grow old. And yet, children are still paying the highest price. Having experienced war myself as a child and living through its debilitating effects my entire life, I want to depict the effects it has on everyone, and especially on children.

Are there poems in this collection that changed significantly from their first draft to their final form?

No, not really. None of them has changed significantly.

Looking back on Water Your Flowers With Love, what did writing this collection teach you about compassion—both for others and for yourself?

Writing Water Your Flowers With Love reinforced my belief in humanity and showed time and again that compassion, along with love, exists within each one of us. They are both ingrained in our psyche; they are both part of the light that exists within us all. At times, we might need to look deep within, past the walls we have built, but the light is there, waiting to be manifested.

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