Identity
Darwish often weaves ideas about identity and self-identification into his poems. He dwells upon the concepts of personhood, always conscious of the potential for projection. In "No More and No Less" he vividly narrates from the perspective of a woman in her struggle for self-identification. She's pushing back against any kind of meta-narrative which people would place upon her because she's a woman; instead she asks to be perceived as she presents: unpredictable, affectionate, romantic, limited, and intelligent. She defies anyone to look at her solely as an image. Perhaps this last thought is reciprocated in "In Her Absence I Created Her Image."
On a different note, Darwish struggles with his own, very personal identity in "Who Am I, Without Exile?" He shifts between a tie to his heritage and a genuine love for where he's at, in Egypt. Palestine is a distant memory, but somehow Darwish feels both pulls just as strongly. In the end, he identifies with the fluidity of water.
Dreams
Darwish's poetry exists in a fluid space. He continually bends the limits of reality, challenging the belief of his texts. In dreams the narrator of "Who Am I, Without Exile?" reconciles with his conflicting loyalties. He finds himself right in the liminal space -- between asleep and awake and between Egypt and Palestine. Within the framework of a dream, he is able to navigate this crisis and to feel once again himself. Then, in "In Her Absence I Created Her Image," the narrator stares into the distance long enough that he either hallucinates or dreams an image of his ex. He imagines himself walking through several past memories and interacting with some strange characters, all for her sake, but then he wakes up. The dream state, as a function of the unconscious, rules Darwish's narrators' relationship to themselves and others.
Fear of Abandonment
Another theme in these poems is a fear of abandonment. These subtle ideas creep into poems through individual lines or even unspoken, in between what the narrator does voice. An obvious example is the female narrator of "No More and No Less." In an admission of vulnerability, she begs not to be left to fend for herself because, after all, she is a woman, in neither the pejorative nor empowering sense. She just is. Then again in "Who Am I, Without Exile?" the unspoken fear of the narrator is of abandonment. Having left his homeland once, he is loathe to reject this new place which has become such a genuine home for him.
