Iraqi War Poems

Frank Minson
Mr. Horner
English III Honors Section 02
17 February 2014
Iraqi vs. American War Poems – How Do the Themes
And Cultures Compare?

Since the onset of the Iraqi War, war poetry concerning the Iraqi War has been published. Prominent authors emerged from this war such as Brian Turner, Abdul Razaq Al-Rubaiee, and Adnan Al-Sayegh. Other authors, like Iraqi poets Mahmud Al-Braikan, Hashem Shafeeq, and Adil Abdullah, were already well-known poets who used the war to voice their feelings about their country. Turner was able to utilize his experiences as a soldier in his poems What Every Soldier Should Know and 2000 lbs. Here, Bullet and Hurt Locker describe the brutal reality of conflict. Turner’s most distinctive poem, R & R, expresses the average soldier’s desire to not fight, but relax and surround oneself with loved ones. Al-Rubaiee wrote of the bleak possibilities that could come out of the Iraqi War in Tomorrow the War Will Have a Picnic. Al-Sayegh, in his brief, yet emotion-inspiring poem Iraq, expressed his yearning for his old homeland; one that was not ridden by war. A general feeling shared by the public, which is skepticism, was the theme of Al-Braikan’s Of Freedom. The Needle by Hashem Shafeeq displayed the overall sadness suffered by Iraqis at the loss of the place where they had grown up. All of these poems are negative; they are completely anti-war, and each culture shares its common themes. But in order to fully understand these poems and their messages, a general grasp of the Iraqi War itself, as well as the culture of war poetry in both America and Iraq, is necessary. Without having some kind of basic knowledge of the circumstances of the war and the situation as a whole, it is impossible to empathize with the feelings of Iraqi poets, Iraqi citizens, American poets, and American citizens. When the “Coalition of the Willing,” which was led by the United States and included British, Australian, and Polish soldiers, entered and invaded Iraq in 2003, the majority of Iraqi people were in favor of it. The Iraqis wanted to rid themselves of Saddam Hussein and his dictatorship, as so did the forces invading Iraq. The plan was, according to General Tommy Franks, were to “first, end the regime of Saddam Hussein. Second, to identify, isolate and eliminate Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. Third, to search for, to capture and to drive out terrorists from that country. Fourth, to collect such intelligence as we can related to terrorist networks. Fifth, to collect such intelligence as we can related to the global network of illicit weapons of mass destruction. Sixth, to end sanctions and to immediately deliver humanitarian support to the displaced and to many needy Iraqi citizens. Seventh, to secure Iraq’s oil fields and resources, which belong to the Iraqi people. And last, to help the Iraqi people create conditions for a transition to a representative self-government (Sale).” At the onset of the war, things went smoothly for the coalition with easy victories and overall a swift takeover of the country. The Americans were extremely successful in capturing high ranking terrorist officials. On April 9 2003, Hussein fell, as did the major Iraq city of Baghdad. Many felt the coalition force’s job was done. However, troops continued to occupy the country until a provisional government was established. The longer the coalition remained, the number of rebellions increased. Iraq reached a full blown civil war. American soldiers were being mocked by guerilla tactics consisting of: mortars, missiles, suicide attacks, snipers, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), car bombs, small arms fire, and RPGs, as well as sabotage against the petroleum, water, and electrical infrastructure (NewsMax).” During this insurgency, Iraq’s transitional government solidified and elections were held, creating an Iraqi National Assembly in May of 2006. This year when the new Iraqi government was in its primitive stages, opposition to coalition forces was at its highest. When 2007 arrived, Iraq was at its calmest and it set a precedent for the next few years until 2010, when most coalition forces would withdraw from Iraq. America’s withdrawal was the most followed based on the public buzz that surrounded the decisions around Iraq and President George W. Bush. Most of the controversy surrounded the United States’ decision to slowly extract troops from Iraq by using American tax dollars to fund the new Iraqi government. But while America was supporting Iraq financially for all its governmental funds, the country itself was making an immense profit on its home-grown oil industry. Nevertheless, America continued their method and the last of the U.S. troops were removed on December 18, 2011. In an attempt to legitimize the newly formed Iraqi government, the United Nations, which at the onset of the war placed restrictions on Iraq’s production of nuclear substances and its nuclear facilities, lifted the restrictions off of Iraq. “These included allowing Iraq to have a civilian nuclear program, permitting the participation of Iraq in international nuclear and chemical weapons treaties, as well as returning control of Iraq 's oil and gas revenue to the government and ending the Oil-for-Food Programme (Besheer).” “The Bush Administration 's rationale for the Iraq War has faced heavy criticism from an array of popular and official sources both inside and outside the United States, with many U.S. citizens finding many parallels with the Vietnam War. For example, a former CIA officer described the Office of Special Plans as a group of ideologues who were dangerous to U.S. national security and a threat to world peace, and that the group lied and manipulated intelligence to further its agenda of removing Saddam. The Center for Public Integrity believed that the Bush administration made a total of 935 false statements between 2001 and 2003 about Iraq 's alleged threat to the United States (NPR).” “Both proponents and opponents of the invasion have also criticized the prosecution of the war effort along a number of other lines. Most significantly, critics have assailed the United States and its allies for not devoting enough troops to the mission, not adequately planning for post-invasion Iraq, and for permitting and perpetrating human rights abuses. As the war has progressed, critics have also railed against the high human and financial costs (NPR).” What left many American people upset about was the impact the war had on the American economy. The immediate cost of the war to the American government was $845 billion, with the total cost of the war to be about $1.7 trillion, according to the Watson Institute of International Studies at Brown University. Many economists estimate that the Iraq War will total between $3 trillion to $6 trillion (including interest) by the time everything is paid off [as long as all goes according to plan] in 2053 (Trotta). During the invasion of Iraq, polls were taken pre-withdrawal where 60% of Iraqis were opposed to American troops leaving and a slight majority of 51% of Iraqis believed that withdrawal would have a negative effect (AFP). This was contradictory to what Iraqi officials that represented the Iraqi people wanted. Since many Iraqi government officials had close ties to terrorist groups, the citizens of the Iraq did not feel safe and wanted the extra protection of U.S. troops, even though this was against what the American people, including soldiers, wanted. Both Iraqis and Americans both took to poetry to expose their feelings on the war and the consequences of it. Iraq has a rich history filled with a culture of poetry. Poetry in this country dates all the way back to the 6th century, but oral poetry predated that. When the writing of poetry began was when the most memorable poetry of Iraq was created. Not only was this period of poetry arguably the most eloquent, but also it created the most comprehensive source of history for cultural and political life beginning at the time of its inception. Poetry is used to interpret feelings from the author to an audience of people that would be able to sympathize with the author. Poets’ methods change with the times. Early poets in Iraq gave more attention to the fluency and wording of the verse rather than the feelings of the poem. This resulted in poems being characterized by strong vocabulary and short ideas with loosely connected verses.” Poetry progressed and the theme of love became more prevalent. It was not until recent history that war poetry was written in Iraq. Poetry still remains an important part of Middle Eastern culture. Iraqi war poems during the invasion address and explore the politics of the war. The poets are educated individuals who are able to discern the repercussions of the decisions made by both the invading governments as well as their own national government. Uncertainty for the future as well as just flat out despair, were expressed throughout the Iraqi poems. Mahmud Al-Braikan’s Of Freedom talks about the false promises voiced by President Saddam Hussein prior to the invasion of Iraq. Al-Braikan is able to see right through Hussein’s lies and would live outside of comfort and with imperfections, rather than having all the luxuries promised. The poem gives symbolic examples that an average reader can be able to relate to and uses contradiction to emphasize his point of simplicity. The author states,
“You have brought me another face,
Fresh and flawless, ideal in size.
Thank you, but I don’t feel like having a glass eye
Or a plastic mouth (Appendix F).”
Al-Braikan is wary of what the future beholds and stays strong to his own beliefs. The Needle, by Hashem Shafeeq, describes the state of the Iraqi nation according to the author. Shafeeq uses a third person view to demonstrate how the average Iraqi women saw her homeland. The woman was distraught over her beloved land which has been ravaged. This poem can also be seen as a possible future view of Iraq. “The vast desert being torn like a dress (Appendix G),” represents the ugliness of the situation. A longing for the old, classical Iraq is the subject of Adnan Al-Sayegh’s Iraq. Al-Sayegh cites Iraq’s culture, specifically, “Half of its history, songs and perfume (Appendix H),” but also realizes the truth to what is the present Iraq – a scary and dangerous place:
“Whenever a shadow passes.
I see a gun’s muzzle before me,
Or an abyss (Appendix H).” Possibly the most renowned poems of the Iraqi war, A Country Out of Work by Adil Abdullah, illustrates the plight of the Iraqi. As can be perceived from the title, Abdullah writes about how the country is out of work, constantly reiterating that idea. He shows that the class separation between the educated wealthy and the uneducated farmers means nothing, everyone has to deal with the same circumstances. Also, Abdullah insinuates that the future of Iraq is in jeopardy. Iraq is not relevant in the scope of the world as it once used to be and it is the children that have
“the job of kindling sunrise from the ash
Of our extinguished sun (Appendix I).” Abdul Razaq Al-Rubaiee’s Tomorrow the War Will Have a Picnic, directly talks about the war in Iraq. Al-Rubaiee begins with talking about the reparations needed to make post-battle in order to resume living a normal life like before the war. The author realizes the physical impact the war has as well, noting how war “loves to mess with your body (Appendix J).” War continues to be mentioned, mostly about the disadvantages of war and what war does not permit. Getting personal and off the general scope of the war, Al-Rubaiee writes:
“Break mothers’ hearts now,
So the force of their tears won’t expand,
Cracking the crust of the earth,
Nor sleeping volcanoes erupt
Inside our chests (Appendix J).”
This is one of the few times that soldiers are referred to in Iraqi poetry. The author wants the soldiers to die now so their mothers do not have to wait in agony over if their son/daughter will be all right or not. “Cracking the crust of the earth” means to dig graves and the “sleeping volcanoes” that would “erupt inside our chests” denotes the heartthrob that would be prevented by death. The importance of the war, according to the government, is mentioned and the steps taken are listed:
“Let’s close the parks,
The gardens,
The flowered balconies,
To allow it to stroll at its ease (Appendix J).”
Now Al-Rubaiee uses the creative title of the picnic to illustrate his point.
“Because the war gets hungry now and then,
And if our tender bodies aren’t enough to satisfy it—
Our childish pranks, our innocence, our dreams— It will be compelled to eat the buildings,
Bodies sleeping in graves,
Books, streets and biscuits.
It will be forced to eat unshakable mountains,
Statues and stones—
Anything to feed its body of smoke,
Bullets and shrapnel (Appendix J).”
This is the crux of the poem and it shows the consequences of war; what it takes away. The results of war are listed above as the loss of: bodies, innocence, dreams, buildings, books, streets, biscuits, mountains, statues, and stones. Al-Rubaiee is sickened by this and mocks the war by advising his readers to abandon luxuries such as laughter, dancing, cups of tea and milk, and chocolate because
“Things like these
Are not good for the health of the war,
Which is having a picnic tomorrow (Appendix J).” Iraqi poetry differs tremendously from American poetry. The first obvious difference is the culture of poetry that Iraq and America has experienced. Iraqi poetry is fuller in history, while American poetry is relatively new and still evolving. That does not mean that America does not have any history behind its poetry. In fact, that history has influenced the style of American authors such as Brian Turner. American poetry began as soon as colonists arrived. Colonist poets such as Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor were instrumental in setting up a society where poetry had value. America’s national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” is actually lyrics from a war poem (“Defence of Fort M’Henry) written by Francis Scott Key (Congress). American poetry, at the start, was mostly dominated by religious themes since the focus was on Puritan ethic. The style of writing in America slowly turned as the colonies developed. As America achieved its independence, great poets emerged such as William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, and most notably Edgar Allan Poe. Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson would revolutionize American poetry with Dickinson’s usage of irony and Whitman’s usage of “gnomic obscurity (Adanya).” War poetry sprouted in America at the onset of World War II where poets went against the typical and traditional verse forms. Deep image poetry was born during this period, where descriptions became more illustrative and the usage of symbolism became predominant. Originally a soldier, Brian Turner speaks about the surreal truth of being an American fighter in Afghanistan in his poem Here Bullet. The harsh reality of the fighting is revealed, in detail. Turner describes the path of the bullet; its voyage from the barrel to the body. What Turner tries to tell his audience is that, without a body to shoot, there would be no reason for a bullet. Once the bullet is shot, the courageousness of the average soldier is put on display as Turner questions the bullet. He dares the bullet “to finish what it started (Appendix A)”, yet the bullet does strike. Upon impact, Turner describes his bodily reaction to the bullet, which is intense pain. The soldier does not scream, but only moans, holding in the pain for only him to know. In Here, Bullet, Turner makes the enemy the bullet rather than whoever is firing it. If paralleled to the war in Iraq, where we think the terrorists are the enemy but the soldiers think the bullet is the enemy, who is the real enemy? The poem 2000 lbs. by Brian Turner is the description of one event through the use of multiple vantage points, with each vantage point having its own background. A bomb is about to go off that will destroy an American convoy. The first viewpoint Tuner gives us is from the perspective of a man named Sefwan. Sefwan is ready to leave in his taxi while he thinks about his lost love, Shatha. The bomb explodes and Sefwan’s
“…last thoughts are of love and wreckage, with no one there to whisper him gone (Appendix B).”
Sgt. Ledouix is the next standpoint. A soldier with impaired hearing, he is thrown from the Humvee (HMMWV - High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle) and is unable to move. He will certainly die from bleeding out,
“but he finds himself surrounded by a strange beauty, the shine of light on the broken, a woman’s hand touching his face, tenderly the way his wife might… (Appendix B).”
Next are Rasheed and Sefa, innocent bystanders who unfortunately were caught in the blast of the explosion. Tuner uses the bridal shop, the store these children were passing on bicycle, manikins as a way to demonstrate how these Rasheed and Sefa will never be able to experience love. Lt. Jackson was just blowing bubbles with young children when the detonation occurred. The reality of war is exhibited by showing that something can happen so suddenly and unexpectedly that can result in
“the wounds that would carry him home (Appendix B).”
An elderly beggar is holding her grandson when she falls to her knees as a result of the explosion. Possibly the most emotional of the viewpoints, it is revealed that the old woman would have saddened by the circumstances of the war and what could come out of it. She believed that:
“To have your heart broken one last time before dying, to kiss a child given sight of a life he could never live? It’s impossible, this isn’t the way we die (Appendix B).
To finish off, Turner shows the outlook of the bomber. The bomber was the center of the bomb and the cause. The author ends this section of the poem with a word that seems to satirize the entire poem: “Inshallah” meaning God-willing. How God could ever will such a thing seems to be what Turner is alluding to. Turner also uses another Arabic word “habib,” which means beloved, to describe how the Iraqi people were able to comfort each other post-explosion, trying to show that the enemies are not the Iraqi people themselves are not the enemies – the Iraqi terrorist-controlled government is. R & R, the title of Brian Turner’s next poem, is a military slang term meaning rest and recuperation. Turner is finished fighting since he is
“all out of adrenaline, all out of smoking incendiaries (Appendix C).”
The author thinks about where he wants to be – with his lover and fellow soldiers. He imagines himself relaxing and lying down, listening to soldiers unwinding and laughing on the beach while playing volleyball. Every soldier’s dream was what Turner dreamt of; a rest from fighting. Soldiers are aware of the mental diseases that can come from too much warfare and none of soldiers are looking to get them. A hurt locker is where all of the destructive military devices are kept. The meaning of Brian Turner’s poem Hurt Locker is to reveal the uncertainties of war. Anyone can attack at any time, even someone one would not expect.
“Believe it when you see it.
Believe it when a twelve-year-old rolls a grenade into the room (Appendix D).”
If that would not surprise one, what will? Soldiers have to be ready for any situation, hence, the point of the hurt locker. What Every Soldier Should Know is a basic run-down of the Iraqi terms every American soldier should be familiar with. Author Brian Turner covers all aspects of warfare from every day terms like good morning (“Sabah el khair”) to graffiti that will be seen that reads
“I will kell you, American (Appendix E).”
An incoming soldier will have to be ready for the unforeseen. Everything is considered fair game in war. Things ridiculous as
“Parachute bombs and artillery shells sewn into the carcasses of dead farm animals (Appendix E).”
Turner warns all of the unknowing soldiers to be cautious since there will be
“Small children who will play with you, old men with their talk, women who offer chai (Appendix E),” yet “… any one of them may dance over your body tomorrow (Appendix E).” The main difference between Iraqi war poems and American war poems are the subjects of each poem. Iraqi war poets like to make their homeland (Iraq), typically the destruction of it, the theme they are writing about. However, American poets enjoy writing about their fellow Americans in combat and the valiant efforts of the common soldier. If an American soldier himself were writing, he/she would tend to write about his/her comrades on the battlefield, as well as the experiences he/she have had during the war. Most of the American poems are filled with nostalgia, with soldiers wanting to return home and to get away from the horrors of war. But, they understand that they are what protect us and remain courageous, even though they know that in their hearts, they do not want to be there. All of these poems are interconnected with major central themes that can be found in just about every war poem. The uncertainties and unpredictability of war, despair and hopelessness, and desire to return to normalcy are all negative themes as well as feelings soldiers felt during war. Not all feelings were adverse; soldiers felt camaraderie among them and were united against a common enemy, even though they did not want to actually be fighting in the first place.

Appendix A
Here, Bullet
Author: Brian Turner

If a body is what you want then here is bone and gristle and flesh.
Here is the clavicle-snapped wish, the aorta 's opened valves, the leap thought makes at the synaptic gap.
Here is the adrenaline rush you crave, that inexorable flight, that insane puncture into heat and blood. And I dare you to finish what you 've started. Because here, Bullet, here is where I complete the word you bring hissing through the air, here is where I moan the barrel 's cold esophagus, triggering my tongue 's explosives for the rifling I have inside of me, each twist of the round spun deeper, because here, Bullet, here is where the world ends, every time.

Appendix B
2000 lbs.
Author: Brian Turner

It begins simply with a fist, white-knuckled and tight, glossy with sweat. With two eyes in a rearview mirror watching for a convoy.
The radio a soundtrack that adrenaline has pushed into silence, replacing it with a heartbeat, his thumb trembling over the button. ~ A flight of gold, that’s what Sefwan thinks as he lights a Miami, draws in the smoke and waits in his taxi at the traffic circle.
He thinks of summer 1974, lifting pitchforks of grain high in the air, the slow drift of it like the fall of Shatha’s hair, and although it was decades ago, he still loves her, remembers her standing at the canebrake where the buffalo cooled shoulder-deep in the water, pleased with the orange cups of flowers he brought her, and he regrets how so much can go wrong in a life, how easily the years slip by, light as grain, bright as the street’s concussion of metal, shrapnel traveling at the speed of sound to open him up in blood and shock, a man whose last thoughts are of love and wreckage, with no one there to whisper him gone. ~ Sgt. Ledouix of the National Guard speaks but cannot hear the words coming out, and it’s just as well his eardrums ruptured because it lends the world a certain calm, though the traffic circle is filled with people running in panic, their legs a blur like horses in a carousel, turning and turning the way the tires spin on the Humvee flipped to its side, the gunner’s hatch he was thrown from a mystery to him now, a dark hole in metal the color of sand, and if he could, he would crawl back inside of it, and though his fingertips scratch at the asphalt he hasn’t the strength to move: shrapnel has torn into his ribcage and he will bleed to death in ten minutes, but he finds himself surrounded by a strange beauty, the shine of light on the broken, a woman’s hand touching his face, tenderly the way his wife might, amazed to find a wedding ring on his crushed hand, the bright gold sinking in flesh going to bone. ~ Rasheed passes the bridal shop on a bicycle, with Sefa beside him, and just before the air ruckles and breaks he glimpses the sidewalk reflections in the storefront glass, men and women walking and talking, or not, an instant of clarity, just before each of them shatters under the detonation’s wave, as if even the idea of them were being destroyed, stripped of form, the blast tearing into the manikins who stood as though husband and wife a moment before, who cannot touch one another, who cannot kiss, who now lie together in glass and debris, holding one another in their half-armed embrace, calling this love, if this is all there will ever be. ~ The civil affairs officer, Lt. Jackson, stares at his missing hands, which make no sense to him, no sense at all, to wave these absurd stumps held in the air where just a moment before he’d blown bubbles out the Humvee window, his left hand holding the bottle, his right hand dipping the plastic ring in soap, filling the air behind them with floating spheres like the oxygen trails of deep ocean divers, something for the children, something beautiful, translucent globes with their iridescent skins drifting on vehicle exhaust and the breeze that might lift one day over the Zagros mountains, that kind of hope, small globes which may have astonished someone on the sidewalk seven minutes before Lt. Jackson blacks out from blood loss and shock, with no one there to bandage the wounds that would carry him home. ~ Nearby, an old woman cradles her grandson, whispering, rocking him on her knees as though singing him to sleep, her hands wet with their blood, her black dress soaked in it as her legs give out and she buckles with him to the ground.
If you’d asked her forty years earlier if she could see herself an old woman begging by the roadside for money, here, with a bomb exploding at the market among all these people, she’d have said
To have your heart broken one last time before dying, to kiss a child given sight of a life he could never live? It’s impossible, this isn’t the way we die. ~ And the man who triggered the button, who may have invoked the Prophet’s name, or not—he is obliterated at the epicenter, he is everywhere, he is of all things, his touch is the air taken in, the blast and wave, the electricity of shock, his is the sound the heart makes quick in the panic’s rush, the surge of blood searching for light and color, that sound the martyr cries filled with the word his soul is made of, Inshallah. ~ Still hanging in the air over Ashur Square, the telephone line snapped in two, crackling a strange incantation the dead hear as they wander confused amongst one another, learning each other’s names, trying to comfort the living in their grief, to console those who cannot accept such random pain, speaking habib softly, one to another there in the rubble and debris, habib over and over, that it might not be forgotten.

Appendix C
R & R
Author: Brian Turner

The curve of her hip where I’d lay my head, that’s what I’m thinking of now, her fingers gone slow through my hair on a blue day ten thousand miles off in the future somewhere, where the beer is so cold it sweats in your hand, cool as her kissing you with crushed ice, her tongue wet with blackberry and melon. That’s what I’m thinking of now.
Because I’m all out of adrenaline, all out of smoking incendiaries. Somewhere deep in the landscape of the brain, under the skull’s blue curving dome— that’s where I am now, swaying in a hammock by the water’s edge as soldiers laugh and play volleyball just down the beach, while others tan and talk with the nurses who bring pills to help them sleep. And if this is crazy, then let this be my sanatorium, let the doctors walk among us here marking their charts as they will. I have a lover with hair that falls like autumn leaves on my skin.
Water that rolls in smooth and cool as anesthesia. Birds that carry all my bullets into the barrel of the sun.

Appendix D
The Hurt Locker
Author: Brian Turner

Nothing but hurt left here.
Nothing but bullets and pain and the bled-out slumping and all the fucks and goddamns and Jesus Christs of the wounded.
Nothing left here but the hurt. Believe it when you see it.
Believe it when a twelve-year-old rolls a grenade into the room.
Or when a sniper punches a hole deep into someone’s skull.
Believe it when four men step from a taxicab in Mosul to shower the street in brass and fire. Open the hurt locker and see what there is of knives and teeth. Open the hurt locker and learn how rough men come hunting for souls.

Appendix E
What Every Soldier Should Know
Author: Brian Turner

To yield force to is an act of necessity, not of will; it is at best an act of prudence. —Jean-Jacques Rousseau

If you hear gunfire on a Thursday afternoon, it could be for a wedding, or it could be for you. Always enter a home with your right foot; the left is for cemeteries and unclean places. O-guf! Tera armeek is rarely useful.
It means Stop! Or I’ll shoot.

Sabah el khair is effective.
It means Good morning. Inshallah means Allah be willing.
Listen well when it is spoken. You will hear the RPG coming for you.
Not so the roadside bomb. There are bombs under the overpasses, in trashpiles, in bricks, in cars. There are shopping carts with clothes soaked in foogas, a sticky gel of homemade napalm. Parachute bombs and artillery shells sewn into the carcasses of dead farm animals. Graffiti sprayed onto the overpasses:
I will kell you, American. Men wearing vests rigged with explosives walk up, raise their arms and say Inshallah. There are men who earn eighty dollars to attack you, five thousand to kill. Small children who will play with you, old men with their talk, women who offer chai— and any one of them may dance over your body tomorrow.

Appendix F
Of Freedom
Author: Mahmud Al-Braikan (translated by Haider Al-Kabi)

A poet dies twice: once when he is published, and once when a statue is erected to him. —Mahmud Al-Braikan

You have invited me to explore another continent with you, but you wouldn’t share the map.
I would rather sail
In my simple boat
And if we chance to meet,
That will be a meeting to remember.
You have offered me a house,
Decorated and comfortable,
In exchange for a song
That sticks to the instructions.
I would rather stay
On my horse’s back
And roam
From wind to wind.
You have brought me another face,
Fresh and flawless, ideal in size.
Thank you, but
I don’t feel like having a glass eye
Or a plastic mouth.
I don’t want to wipe out differences.
I don’t care for perfect symmetry.
Thank you, but
My distance is something I’d prefer to save.
Is the slave master not, at heart, a slave?

Appendix G
The Needle
Author: Hashem Shafeeq (translated by Sadek Mohammed)

She sat and darned a sock, a skirt, the threadbare curtains.
She drank her coffee in the shadows then stepped outside to examine the hem of her homeland.
She saw the vast desert being torn like a dress.
Undaunted, she twirled her needle till it twinkled, then set off to sew up the tears they had made in her country.

Appendix H
Iraq
Author: Adnan Al-Sayegh (translated by Soheil Najm)

Iraq that is going away
With every step its exiles take....
Iraq that shivers
Whenever a shadow passes.
I see a gun’s muzzle before me,
Or an abyss.
Iraq that we miss:
Half of its history, songs and perfume
And the other half is tyrants.

Appendix I
A Country Out of Work
Author: Adil Abdullah (translated by Haider Al-Kabi)

Everybody here is out of work:
The workers in the factories and the officers in the offices,
All of them are out of work!
Those going early to the fields
And coming back tired at noon
Are also out of work.
The students and the teachers,
Whom the government pays handsomely
To master joblessness, are out of work.
The army and the police,
The children and the adults,
The women in the houses,
The imams in the mosques—all of them are
Out of work!
So long as there are strangers
Spreading darkness in our land,
Its children have no job but one—
The job of kindling sunrise from the ash
Of our extinguished sun.

Appendix J
Tomorrow the War Will Have a Picnic
Author: Abdul Razaq Al-Rubaiee (translated by Sadek Mohammed)

Tomorrow the war will have a picnic:
Decorate the hospitals with medicines, bandages
And sharp lancets.
Tomorrow the war will have a picnic:
Dust off the graves
And dig fresh ones—
War detests the smell of rotting corpses.
Wash up with mud, then
Brush your teeth white so they’ll gleam
In the darkness of its pompous entourage.
Throw fragile joys out of your heart—
War has no use for bubbles or balloons.
Tomorrow the war will have a picnic:
Prepare your bodies for pain
Your limbs for amputation.
War’s affection is heavy-handed—
It loves to mess with your body.
Tomorrow the war will have a picnic:
Abandon delicacy
And laughter.
War does not like chocolates
Or kissing in public—
These things are not good for the heart
Of the war
Which is having a picnic tomorrow.
Empty the salty streams
From the faucets of your eyes.
The war’s blood pressure is high,
Its arteries hard,
So it doesn’t like salt in its food,
Or on your cheeks.
Tomorrow the war will have a picnic:
Break mothers’ hearts now,
So the force of their tears won’t expand,
Cracking the crust of the earth,
Nor sleeping volcanoes erupt
Inside our chests.
Tomorrow the war will have a picnic:
Turn off the moon hanging over the roof
So it won’t dim the tracers and flares
That light up war’s path.
Let death come in beauty and comfort, soft
As a pillow of angel’s feathers.
Tomorrow the war will have a picnic:
Let’s close the parks,
The gardens,
The flowered balconies,
To allow it to stroll at its ease.
Sweep those big, messy clouds from the sky
So they won’t get airplane wings all wet
And swerve them from precise, pinpointed targets. Tomorrow the war will have a picnic:
Plant flowers,
For graveyards will grow.
And besides, they will cheer up the dead
Who will hang in garlands from our necks,
Awaiting the Judgement Day.
Tomorrow the war will have a picnic:
Store water, bread, and air.
Because the war gets hungry now and then,
And if our tender bodies aren’t enough to satisfy it—
Our childish pranks, our innocence, our dreams— It will be compelled to eat the buildings,
Bodies sleeping in graves,
Books, streets and biscuits.
It will be forced to eat unshakable mountains,
Statues and stones—
Anything to feed its body of smoke,
Bullets and shrapnel.
Tomorrow the war will have a picnic:
We must go out to meet it—
Out of our bedrooms, our
Schools, barbershops, public libraries,
Mosques, shelters, One Thousand Nights and a Night,
Caves, post cards, fields, graves, trenches,
Bread bags, soft drink bottles,
Al-Tawhidi’s Isharat, tooth brushes,
Ibn Malik’s Alfiyah, Rawdhat Aljinan, family trees, Cradles and news bulletins.
We have to come out from our
Skins and our milk names to meet it,
And join its parade
To the Al-Sallam graveyard.
Tomorrow the war will have a picnic:
Abandon delicacy,
Laughter,
Dancing,
Childhood,
Women,
Beds,
Cups of tea and milk,
Classroom desks,
And what’s left of dreams
Splintered in corners.
No more chocolate,
No more kissing in public—
Things like these
Are not good for the health of the war,
Which is having a picnic tomorrow.

Works Cited
Abdullah, Adil, Adnan Al-Sayegh, Hashem Shafeew, Lateef Helmet, Mahmud Al-Braikan, and Abdul Razaq Al-Rubaiee. "Voices From Iraq: Iraqi Poets." Choices.edu. Choices for the 21st Century Education Program, n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2014. .
Adanya, Apa. "CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF POETRY: Whitman and Dickinson."Poetrycollection.blogspot.com. Blogspot, 7 Oct. 2010. Web. 18 Feb. 2014. .
"AFP: Iraqis Say 'wrong Time ' for US Withdrawal: Poll." GoogleNews.com. Google News, 24 Aug. 2010. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. .
Besheer, Margaret. "UN Security Council Lifts Some Restrictions On Iraq." Voanews.com. Voice of America, 14 Dec. 2011. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. .
"Defence of Fort M 'Henry | Library of Congress." Loc.gov. Library of Congress, n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2014. .
"Group: 'Orchestrated Deception ' by Bush on Iraq." NPR.org. National Public Radio, 23 Jan. 2008. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. .
"International Archives." Newsmax.com/archives. NewsMax Media, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. .
Lorraine Ash, A Poet Goes to War, September 17, 2006. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Mikhail, Dunya. "An Introduction for Fifteen Iraqi Poets." Ndbooks.com. New Directions, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. .
Sale, Michelle, and Javaid Khan. "Missions Accomplished?" Nytimes.com. New York Times, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. .
Trotta, Daniel. "Iraq War Costs U.S. More than $2 Trillion: Study." Reuters.com. Thomson Reuters, 14 Mar. 2013. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. .
Turner, Brian. "2000 Lbs." Poetryfoundation.org. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. .
Turner, Brian. "Here, Bullet : Brian Turner." Brianturner.org. Here, Bullet: Brian Turner, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. .
Turner, Brian. "The Hurt Locker." Poetryfoundation.org. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. .
Turner, Brian. "R & R." Poetryfoundation.org. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. .
Turner, Brian. "What Every Soldier Should Know." Poetryfoundation.org. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. .

Cited: Abdullah, Adil, Adnan Al-Sayegh, Hashem Shafeew, Lateef Helmet, Mahmud Al-Braikan, and Abdul Razaq Al-Rubaiee. "Voices From Iraq: Iraqi Poets." Choices.edu. Choices for the 21st Century Education Program, n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2014. . Adanya, Apa. "CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF POETRY: Whitman and Dickinson."Poetrycollection.blogspot.com. Blogspot, 7 Oct. 2010. Web. 18 Feb. 2014. . "AFP: Iraqis Say 'wrong Time ' for US Withdrawal: Poll." GoogleNews.com. Google News, 24 Aug. 2010. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. . Besheer, Margaret. "UN Security Council Lifts Some Restrictions On Iraq." Voanews.com. Voice of America, 14 Dec. 2011. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. . "Defence of Fort M 'Henry | Library of Congress." Loc.gov. Library of Congress, n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2014. . "Group: 'Orchestrated Deception ' by Bush on Iraq." NPR.org. National Public Radio, 23 Jan. 2008. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. . "International Archives." Newsmax.com/archives. NewsMax Media, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. . Lorraine Ash, A Poet Goes to War, September 17, 2006. Web. 18 Feb. 2014. Mikhail, Dunya Sale, Michelle, and Javaid Khan. "Missions Accomplished?" Nytimes.com. New York Times, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. . Trotta, Daniel. "Iraq War Costs U.S. More than $2 Trillion: Study." Reuters.com. Thomson Reuters, 14 Mar. 2013. Web. 17 Feb. 2014. . Turner, Brian. "2000 Lbs." Poetryfoundation.org. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. . Turner, Brian. "Here, Bullet : Brian Turner." Brianturner.org. Here, Bullet: Brian Turner, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. . Turner, Brian. "The Hurt Locker." Poetryfoundation.org. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. . Turner, Brian. "R & R." Poetryfoundation.org. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. . Turner, Brian. "What Every Soldier Should Know." Poetryfoundation.org. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. .