At once an intimate autobiography and a collective memory of the Palestinian people, Darwish"s intertwined poems are collective cries, songs, and glimpses of the human condition. Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? is a poetry of myth and history, of exile and suspended time, of an identity bound to his displaced people and to the rich Arabic language. Darwish"s poems " specific and symbolic, simple and profound " are historical glimpses, existential queries, chants of pain and injustice of a people separated from their land.