Congratulations to everyone selected for the Wander Open Call 2025 competition! Thank you to everyone who sent in poems and I really hope next year to have this again and to offer this space.
Congratulations to all the poets selected:
Alienated by Mustafa Noah // How To Be by Sanjar Qiam. // The Dilemma by Hiba Rasheed // Wind Blows Sudden by B3dmah // Caged Bird by Shaza // يحتلك الشيطان (Occupied By The Devil) by Hend Jouda
I shared this with a friend.
He asked, “Why can’t you feel anything anymore?”
I said, “I think I lost my feelings when I realized Europe wasn’t the dream I thought it was.
It turned me into someone I don’t recognize, someone without feelings.
Now I know that the wind didn’t just blow suddenly.
It was carrying something, a force that would change everything.
At least now, I understand what it turned out to be:
Not a promise, not a dream…
but a storm that reshaped me.
And even if I stand here today with scars and silence,
At least now I know the truth behind that wind.”
– B3dmah, ‘Wind Blows Sudden’
Thanks to the The Arts Council of Ireland for funding.
previous episodes – Hend Jouda // Dean Oke
Transcript Wander Open Call 2025
Bairbre Flood: Hi and welcome to Wander, with me, Bairbre Flood, and with thanks to the Arts Council of Ireland for their funding support.
Congratulations to everyone selected for the Wander 2025 open call competition!
Thank you to everyone who sent in poems and I really hope next year to have this again and to offer this space.
MUSIC
So here are the poems selected:
Alienated by Mustafa Noah
How To Be by Sanjar Qiam
The Dilemma by Hiba Rasheed
Wind Blows Sudden by B3dmah
Caged Bird by Shaza
يحتلك الشيطان (Occupied By The Devil) by Hend Jouda
Congratulations to all the poets selected.
MUSIC
Our first poem today is called ‘Alienated’ by Mustafa Noah, who was featured in last seasons Wander if you want to have a listen back to that episode.
Mustafa is originally from Iraq and he said that the poem is called “Alienated” because, quote ‘the runners of the system have made me an Alien – isolated, but not by choice.’
This is ‘Alientated’ by Mustafa Noah
MUSIC
That was ‘Alienated’ by Mustafa Noah.
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Bairbre Flood: Shaza is a Rotterdam-based fusion artist from Syria.
She began her musical journey in Egypt at the age of 9, performing Syrian and Egyptian songs as a duo with her sister. In 2015, she continued her path in the Netherlands, touring with orchestras and bands on stages such as the Concertgebouw, Paradiso, and Melkweg.
Today, Shaza is focused on her own work, using song, improvisation, and poetry to tell important stories. Her music blends influences from hip-hop, North African and Middle Eastern sounds, jazz, and pop music.
You can find her @shazamanlaaa
This is ‘Caged Bird’ by Shaza.
Shaza: Caged bird
after her departure
she held me
and told me dont cry
as tears shed from her eye
and while she slowly became a mother that night
and all i wondered was, who will keep me clean during these times?
ever since that night my body was nothing more than the reminder that now i am on my own
and my body became the reminder that growth, is nothing more than pain, in shame titled body parts, and a brain that wonders who to tell.
my body consisted of flesh and bones and pains that i could never escape
i am a bird in a cage that is this body of mine
i am a bird in a cage that is this body of mine but its alright
i am bird in a cage that is this body of mine but its alright
i am a bird in a cage that is this body of mine but its alright
i am a bird in a cage that is this body of mine is that right?
MUSIC
Bairbre Flood: That was ‘Caged Bird’ by Shaza.
MUSIC
Bairbre Flood: B3dmah is a musician and poet based in Athens. You can find him @b3edmah on insta. He sent this message with the poem:
‘Thanks first of all for this opportunity that helped me to revisit a very important time of life that shaped a lot of my perspective on how I view life.
This opportunity was something that I never knew I needed – revisiting some very hard times In my life and still I remain mentally and spiritually strong. It’s something that many of us can not do.
Thanks for this again, I hope this might inspire someone somehow!’
This is ‘Wind Blows Sudden’ by B.3dmah
MUSIC
B.3dmah:
The wind blows suddenly and for some, it might signal good weather.
But for me, that wind came with a cost.
That cost was leaving my country, chasing the hope of a better future.
My steps were built on dreams sold by the media an architecture of illusions,
never grounded in reality.
Fast forward: I found myself in the middle of a rush the hustle, the chaos,
the mud covering my feet.
Screams and shouts echoed around me, people yelling to get the boat ready.
My feelings? Numb.
Yet I still moved, helping to carry supplies, rushing to prepare for the unknown.
Fast forward again: fresh off the boat. Some were celebrating.
Others were praying, hoping we had made it that we had finally arrived
in the dreamland of promise.
But quickly, celebration gave way to confusion and fear.
Police arrived, shouting, shoving people into vans.
No one understood what was being said. My brain froze. My feelings, still numb.
Later, police began shouting for names, asking questions with no explanation.
I watched them deliberately write down false dates of birth, as if our identities didn’t matter. Days passed. I found myself in a small tent, in the middle of a storm.
Rain poured, wind howled, and my tent bent under the pressure but I survived.
Each morning, I stood in line for half an hour just to get breakfast,
all while being treated inhumanely by guards.
Then I returned to my tent, a small, broken place that somehow became my only refuge. Whenever I felt overwhelmed, confused, or ignored about my asylum case,
that tent became my escape.
I started fearing to ask for my rights rights I knew I was entitled to.
Not because I feared being hit, but because something deeper had changed.
Something inside me broke. Something I can’t put into words.
One day, I saw a man his body had turned blue.
He had died, and rats were eating at him. It was the first dead body I had ever seen.
Still, I couldn’t feel anything.
No fear, no sadness, nothing.
I shared this with a friend. He asked, “Why can’t you feel anything anymore?”
I said, “I think I lost my feelings when I realized Europe wasn’t the dream I thought it was.
It turned me into someone I don’t recognize, someone without feelings .
Now I know that the wind didn’t just blow suddenly.
It was carrying something, a force that would change everything.
At least now, I understand what it turned out to be:
Not a promise, not a dream…
But a storm that reshaped me.
And even if I stand here today with scars and silence,
At least now I know the truth behind that wind.
MUSIC
Bairbre Flood: That was ‘Wind Blows Sudden’ by B3dmah
MUSIC
Bairbre Flood: Hiba Rasheed is a Sudanese Spoken Word & Slam Poet. She’s a three-time winner of the Rooftop Rhythms Slam Poetry Competition in Abu Dhabi and first female poet to win their Grand Slam Poetry title.
She’s performed at a plethora of events such as Marhaba Open Mic at NYU Abu Dhabi, Al Salam Community School Tarahum for Gaza Fundraiser, 100 Thousand Poets for Change Poetry event and Dubai Cultural Night, among many others.
Her poetry video (Ya Sudan) was screened at the 12th International Video Poetry Festival 2025.
And her poems have been published in Gulf News, quint magazine, Kandaka, 500 Words, Last Leaves, Andariya, and the Sudanese newspaper ‘The Citizen’.
You can find her @hibarasheedpoet on instagram and hibarasheedslampoet – on Youtube.
MUSIC
Hiba Rasheed: An Identity Dilemma
Culturally driven, on a mission to solve an identity collision
Raised on a different soil, my terra firma, a country by definition
Embraced by others, I am a product of the cosmopolitan division
My African heritage, a distant documentary I used to watch on television
Ensconced in systems with divergent norms and perceptions
An inadvertent mixed breed with no definite identification
Beautifully flawed, I virtually belong to more than one nation
“Sudanese” stamped on my passport but I also have the third culture kid affiliation
The motherland is broken, crying out for her children to intertwine
But how can I help her when I was born and raised outside?
I missed growing up in her arms, so I lost a huge part of who I am
How can I solve this identity dilemma when I have always been conflicted inside?
MUSIC
Bairbre Flood: That was ‘The Dilemma’ by Hiba Rasheed.
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Bairbre Flood: Sanjar Qiam is a comedian, poet and storyteller from Afghanistan, now living in the UK.
He performed at the ‘Music and Storytelling of Afghanistan’ event at Rosehill, Brighton this year, and his ‘Comical Adventures – Stories of Fatherhood in a Strange Land’ was part of the Brighton Fringe Festival.
You can find him on instagram @san1man or his website – www.nolander.org
https://www.instagram.com/san1man
This is ‘How To Be’ by Sanjar Qiam…
MUSIC
Sanjar Qiam: It’s a sentiment of the unlucky
Sometimes the deprived other the adventurous
Is it to be authentic
Or try to belong
For peace within us or amongst us;
How do you be Afghan
You can’t
It’s to be only one thing
Who is?
When you are a brother, a lover, a father, a friend,
A son…
Sometimes you say you Afghan
To make it easy
Sometimes you say you British
To make it easy
There is the relentless and they don’t do easy
“Where are you really from?”
Every time you feel at home they put you on the
outside again;
You feel like a fool then wonder;
How to be…
Then, you go to the place where you really are from
But you feel different, you are seen different and
you look different
Your language, words, mannerism betray you
So much so that the offended “true local” want to
kill you
You are envied or you are admired
For the loved ones and for the stranger
And you wonder
How to be…
You take to the mountain you take to the sea
Finding the space, nature, people and time
To tell you who you are
Before they told you, you are Afghan
After everything you do
You are always on the outside
Sometimes they put you and once you chose to;
Where would you figure
How to be …
To separate you from what you picking up from
them
It’s terrifying – its liberating
You are not the familiar mask you wear
You are not this terrible beast to be grateful for
being here
You don’t need to mispronounce your name for
them to say it
You are not too loud
You are not the angel
You are not the devil
In fact! You are none of the things you felt obliged
to be
It’s not about you
You are, because you need to be
Because they need you to be
In order to stay them
You are the rock
You are the mountain
You are the star
You are the edifice
Without you, they don’t know
How to be…
They made this game
It’s a maze of mirrors where you see them more
than you see you
You can’t afford to forget yourself
Because knowing who you are is your way out
You don’t need the star the mountain or the sea
You just need their mirrors to separate what you
are not
And you will arrive at,
How to be …
Bairbre Flood: That was ‘How To Be’ by Sanjar Qiam
MUSIC
Bairbre Flood: Hend Jouda @hendjoudat is a writer from Gaza who’s published several poetry collections in Arabic: ‘Someone Always Leaves’, ‘No Sugar in the City’ and ‘Finger Survived’ and also, earlier this year, a collection in Arabic and French called ‘A Poet In Times Of War’.
Hend was born in Al-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza which has been attacked dozens of times by Israel, including a bombing on May 7th of a school where displaced people were seeking shelter – over 33 Palestinian civilians were murdered. The school was targeted twice.
https://www.instagram.com/hendjoudat
This is ‘Occupied By The Devil’ by Hend Jouda
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Bairbre Flood: That was Hend Jouda and her poem ‘Occupied By The Devil’. This poem was also selected to be made into a video poem with specially commissioned digital art by Silvio Severino aka @loopconspiracy – the video is up on Silvio’s youtube channel and on the Wander website – www.bairbreflood.org
Do go and have a look at it.
MUSIC
Bairbre Flood: A huge thank you to all the poets who are featured here in the Wander Open Call 2025 today and for their poems:
Alienated by Mustafa Noah
Caged Bird by Shaza
Wind Blows Sudden by B3dmah
The Dilemma by Hiba Rasheed
How To Be by Sanjar Qiam
يحتلك الشيطان (Occupied By The Devil) by Hend Jouda
You can find links to all the poets also on the website or at my instagram @bairbreflood
Thank you all for listening,
thanks to the Arts Council of Ireland for funding this podcast,
from me Bairbre Flood, bye for now.
