A BUNCH OF FLOWERS

About the Book

I have written different kinds of poems in Australia, and in Iraqi Kurdistan. I would like to share them with readers who are interested in reading poems about different cultures and for them to feel and sense the sorrows of other people in the world. My book consists of an introduction, the city of Koya and its history, the university of Koya, the history of English language, and brief explanation on poetry as well.

My emotional poems come from real life events that I have seen and experienced. Its not easy to describe what I have seen and what I have gone through in life unless I write it down. Sometimes I could say, it was happiness but at the same time sadness that I experienced which are evident in my poems as well. But I can say I have enjoyed both, because life is full of ups and downs and this is what makes us be the person we are.

Since I started Intermediate School in September 1971. My feelings and emotions moved me mentally and physically towards writing poems. I could say that the political situation and the bad treatment towards the Kurds, and Kurdistan as well as the bad economical situation generally had affected me.

The political situation in our life turned all the beautiful things upside down.

I started to write poems in Kurdish when I was in Highschool and I collected hundreds of poems. They were about love, our land, poverty, and political situations. As a student from an average family (low class income), we were just able to survive with no extra money to spend on other things. I was not able to publish them in a small booklet, and it was not an easy process. The former Iraqi government or any other organization did not provide help in order to publish it. I kept them at home. At that time some of the poems were even prohibited to be seen by anyone or to be published at all. If they were captured in your house by the Iraqi authorities, it would have cost my life, my family’s life or the government would knock down our house. I liked my poems and they were became a big part of my life.

This feeling never stopped. It continued and grew like a small child with me.

In June 1981, I escaped from the former Iraqi army as I was a soldier. I was in the city of Basra in South of Iraq at that time, due to the Iraqi and Iranian war; I encouraged all my friends to run away from the army. We were a group of Kurdish soldiers; we escaped at night through the Arab river by a small boat, which was located at South East of Basra. We went back to the city of Slemani in Iraqi Kurdistan. After a few days I left the city towards a liberated Kurdish area, which was under the control of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which was a political organization. I settled in the village of Maiyawa in the district of Sharbajer/Srochk. I stayed there for two years with hundreds of other escapees at the village. But I was living in an empty school with my cousin.

I started to write poems about every single true emotion that came into my mind, for instance I did write about so many fights that were happened in our area between the Kurdish Freedom Fighters and the Iraqi army. I wrote so many poems and a few stories for two years, even I went to Iran couple times and wrote about my trips. I had two books full of poems when I came back to Slemani, the Iraqi government granted the Kurdish soldiers amnesty in order the Kurdish escapees to join the Iraqi army again. We joined the Iraqi army for six months then the Kurdish soldiers were retired from the Iraqi army, due to being Kurds.

In 1985 I was working at the university of Salahaddin in Erbil (Hewler), the capital city of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), and I was not home then around 50,000 Iraqi soldiers were poured

About the Author

Dana was born in the city of Sulaimaniyah. His full name is Dana Kadir Ali Kadir Kake Mahmud Zerin. His parents were born in the town of Berzinje. Dana finished his Primary Public School in the town of Berzinje in 1971; he had also finished his Intermediate School in 1974 in the city of Sulaimaniyah in the Intermediate School of Azmir. He finished Diploma of Commercial Practices (Accounting) in 1977 in the city of Sulaimaniyah. Now he lives in Sydney/Australia, and he has two lovely daughters Vanna and Shivan. The author has finished the following studies in Australia, Bachelor of Business in 1995 from the Faculty of Business and Computing at Southern Cross University in Lismore. Bachelor of Teaching (Secondary) Faculty of Education {University of Western Sydney Macarthur} 2002. Postgraduate Diploma in Adult Education (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) in 2000, Faculty of Education at the University of Western Sydney Macarthur. Postgraduate Diploma in Business in 1998 (Employment Relations) Faculty of Business (University of Technology Sydney). He is also finished Masters Degree in (Adult Education TESOL) (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) in 2005, Faculty of Education at the University of Western Sydney Macarthur. Dana worked as a NAATI’S I/T examiner Panel for the Kurdish Language from July 1999-2001, in Sydney. He also worked at SBS radio-Sydney (Kurdish program) as a news reporter with translating roles, from July 1997-1998. In Aug 1997-Feb 1998 he was a Personal assistant officer at Fairfield City Council/HRM. Dana was also trained to become an Interpreter for the Kurdish and English language for the Department of Social Security in Lismore this was in Aug 1996. Lastly he worked as a manager for the supplementary section at the Faculty of Education, in Sulaimaniyah and (Hewler/Erbil from April-1980 and left at 1987, with some disrupted work. Dana worked for the Department of Education, for seven and a half years, as a Teacher’s Aide in different High Schools in NSW. He is also worked as a Practicum Teacher at Holroyd High School, in Intensive English Centre and Rooty Hill High School, and taught Mathematics. Dana found a teaching position in 1999 at Macquarie College in Liverpool, which belonged to University of Western Sydney. Finally, he joined Navitas English as a teacher from April 2001 until December 2012 and taught English in different English Colleges, Finally he taught English at Parramatta Navitas English College until December 2011 in Parramatta. At the present he teaches at the Faculty of Languages/English Department, at Koya University as assistant lecturer. The author speaks the following languages, Kurdish, English, Arabic, Turkish and Persian.