A Journey Around the Arab-Spring Revolutions

Tarif was born in Damascus, Syria in 1957. He started writing short stories and articles in his early years of elementary school, and free-style poetry in his college years. He carries two degrees, a BS in science and a BA in letters, from Damascus University where he also lectured. After a number of encounters with the brutal Syrian dictatorship regime, he decided that Syria was not a safe country to live in. He moved to the U.S. in the Eighties, settled in Houston, Texas and restarted his life from scratch. He organized four poetry events in Houston in the years 2009 and 2010, where he recited his 'Epics' glorifying the civilization, history and culture of his nation. When 'The Arab Spring Revolutions' started late 2010, he immediately took their side and documented their events, one after one and step by step, with his poems and articles. A few days after 'The Syrian Revolution' was born on March 15, 2011, he wrote a letter to the Syrian Ambassador in DC, criticizing the barbaric way the Assad regime dealt with the peaceful demonstrators and urging him to use his influence to stop the massacres there. That letter spread fast over the net and inspired many others to talk out. After a few days, his photo, name and that letter were granted a space on 'The Syrian Revolution List of Honor'. His contribution to 'The Arab Spring' includes traveling to the Syrian-Turkish borders on his own to help and comfort Syrian refugees, writing and publishing hundreds of poems and articles supporting the quest for freedom, dignity and democracy, setting 'The Revolution Studio' in his house where he recorded and uploaded tens of poetry videos on the net, appearing on TV interviews and giving lectures at the Houston Community College about 'The Arab Spring', organizing and participating in a number of public events and conferences nationwide where he recited some of his poems and was introduced as 'The Poet of the Arab Revolutions'. His official website that includes all his works, in Arabic and English, is: http://sites.google.com/site/tarifspoetry