ALAA SAUD AL-DULAIMI

 

 

Waves Above

The Forefront Of Longing

 

Like a seed searching for fertile ground;

 

To sprout verdure in the soul of desires

Waves breaking at the fingers of a lover

Who beholds his beloved in the mirror of water

Her image is the inspiration for immortal poems.

 

I strive towards you with the staff of a saint

Strikes longing, and passion explodes

I perform ablution with the fervor of love;

To fast from all but you

For I have no breaking of the fast except at the table of your nearness.

 

I am jealous of the air;

For it breathes your fragrance

Teasing your red tresses!

 

The tranquility of your eyes is a flute piercing the silence of the marsh

Chanting hymns of love

In the sanctuaries of waiting.  Above the lips, a dark mole

 

Glimmers in the beloved's smile

Guiding him if he loses his way among the clusters!

 

The eyebrow has a magic

I steal glances at it;

 

And my senses become intoxicated!

 

The Table Of War

 

Anxiety stretched across the homeland,

The pavements pale like grass

Abandoned by shepherds,

The night's sorrow deepened the blackness of mothers' hearts!

 

Who will come first?

 

Joy or sorrow?

The white of weddings or the white of death?

Bare breasts,

Bullets are our childhood companions,

We save them for our holidays,

Before prayers, fathers' rifles shout,

While mothers shed tears of loss.

The martyrs are crescent moons in the sky of Iraq!

We, the innocent, share the air of citizenship,

Houses of tin,

Doors of tattered clothes,

Roofs of withered palm trees.

Our martyr and the martyr of ourselves,

There is no doubt that our shrouds are one. 

 

ALAA SAUD AL-DULAIMI

 

ALAA SAUD AL-DULAIMI: Bachelor of Arts in Arabic, Iraq/Wasit/Al-Zubaidiya District, Member of the General Union of Iraqi Writers and Authors, Member of the Wasit Writers' Union, and Member of numerous cultural forums. He has published several literary works, including (A Heartbeat That Dances with the Breath of the Sails), a collection of poems published by Dar Al-Sard for printing, publishing, and distribution in Baghdad, and (Between Birth and Death, Who Will Collect My Ashes?), also published by Dar Al-Sard for printing, publishing, and distribution. He has also published a collection of critical essays by various Iraqi and Arab critics entitled (Critical Windows in the Literary Experience of Alaa Saud Al-Dulaimi), published by Dar Al-Sard for printing, publishing, and distribution.  She has also published two collections of poetry in electronic format with the Editors Literary Network, titled (Village Women) and (The Hunger of Desire Wet with Rain), as well as numerous collective literary anthologies and several collective short story collections.