A Request

Over here
The time stops
In the wide corner from the cosmos,
The time stops
In domains that infinite
From doorsteps of shooting stars,
The time stops
Everywhere,
The time stops.
Then
The demonstrations follow in succession
From all sides
From all people
those who were born and died,
Those who were born
and are still alive,
And those who will be born,
Carrying candles
That spurt vermillion blood,
And the signs they tore
From the blue clearness of the Iraqi sky
Written on
"God"
Hasn't Iraq's ground had enough blood poured on?

Detroit

4/5/2004

Said Al-Waely

·         Iraqi poet, translator and human rights activist
 

·         Born in the holy city of Najaf in 1953
 

·         Graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts / Baghdad in 1975, and then completed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts / Baghdad
 

·         Contributed to the 1991 "revolution" against the dictator Sadam Hussian
 

·         Residing in Detroit, Michigan, United States since the political refugee in 1993
 

·         Contributed to many cultural and literary activities in Detroit, and a number of evenings of poetry and plays
 

·         Founded the following Centers :
- Iraqi-American Center for Culture and Arts
- Founder and Managing-Editor of Tahayati.com
- Founder of the Iraqi Human Rights Network in the United States of America
 

·         He has published numerous texts in English
 

·         Poetry.com awarded him The Poetry Ambassador of 2006 & 2007.
 

·         Poetry.com awarded him The Editor's Choice Award for the years 2006 & 2007.
 

·         Some of his poetry was published with many other American poets in 2 poetry books under the names Deluxe Hardbound Editions by Poetry.com and recorded more of his poetry onto CD's under the name of "The Sound of Poetry" with the best thirty-three Poets in the year of 2006 in the U.S.
 

·         The international Noble House poetry division also published his work in Centres of Expression - a new poetry edition that is being distributed worldwide.
 

Websites:

www.tahayati.com

www.iraqen.net

www.SaidWaely.com
 

A Mug of Water

A Mug of Water

Nude and slender
The dawn opens its eyes,
In-between its eyelids
A polar twilight,
A tremble...
Dangled
The sky's arms.
Fading,
Like the morning star,
A rhythm ...
On the flow of pains,
Vapor of the head
Loosens its ambush ...
The things are servile
Like the far away horizon…
Earth,
Like a blue drop of circumference
In the dark corner
Its light: the stars.
Centers
Come and go
Heavy blindness
Pervades the circumference,
And the dawn
Possessor of white hair
Emits his intestine's crowds
And gnaws the aim.
Dome Blue eyes
Dangles
From depth of the maze…
Eyelashes covered by branches,
Created Like the haze of canyons
And hide the secret.
An eternal desert
Golden cinctures
Dances in-between ear and ear
Its gray tail
The depth of circumference.
The summit of the patch slides
Like a surreal pole
And in a gelatinous cave
An earthy progeny lime
Like the tropic snakes Inhaling the fire.
And then for the vapor be
From coronation of a lie like a coronet!
But the truth
Like the air which we inhale,
Mug of a water Achromatic,
Taste,
And smell.
I hear the gulf under the rocks,
To sheathe my soul
In the veins of my bones,
I watch it slide
As a fish In the neck of a bird.

Written and Translated by: Said Alwaely