Four Decades of Exile

About the Book

Rice Bread I was a poor, hungry boy, going to school, on an early morning, of a chilly winter day, needing to grab a bite. You sat on your legs, on the bare kitchen floor, to build a fire with a few stagnant, wet twigs and damp roots, to heat the iron pan to bake a rice-bread for me. You vehemently fought with the heavy smoke for a long while until your eyes moistened; you failed to light the wood, and gave up. The steel pan didn't heat; the rice dough remained untouched. I went to school empty-stomached, shivering, without a bite. I never minded hunger if I only had a dinner last night. I didn't know building a fire was that hard or impossible in a country floating on a lake of oil and gas. Five long and hard decades had passed; with all the riches, plenty milk and honey America can afford, my silk shirts and ties, overseas travels, imported wine, my alms to the needy and exiled, my open house, I still keen for your naked rice bread, for your redolent hugs' warmth in the chilly winter days, under the generous eyes of the immortal sun. I was a tattered, poverty-stricken, half-naked, half-starved, bare-footed lad, yet far away from the savage clash of adamant, civilized swords, the aches of horrendous calamities and atrocities, the evil and hatred of my malevolent, villainous world. In the waterfall of waned memories, I often drown and weep like a hungry, orphan child keening to your cardamom, compassion, and rice-bread. In retrospect, that hunger, poverty, and deprivation taught me tolerance, endurance, to be human after all. I learned never to live for food; "Not only by bread a man lives." I rarely slept without nostalgically and pensively recalling your misfortunate, sorrowful face, your smoke-stifled, withered, tearful eyes, as you vehemently struggled to build a fire.

About the Author

About the Poet Born in Misan, IRAQ where he finished his high school. Received his B.A. in English-American literature from The College of Languages, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, IRAQ, Graduated from Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1978 with an M.A. in English-American literature. Attended Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois, August 1978-May 1980 Graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a Ph.D. in English-American literature in 1983; wrote about William Faulkner. Have been teaching English in different colleges in America since 1983. Currently teaching English at a local community college in Michigan. Of his writings: The role of the Psycho-historical Heritage in the Behavior and Fate of the Individual in Faulkner’s Writings. Ph.D. dissertation, 1983. Country of Tears, poetry, 1996 A collection of Arabic poetry Shades and Shadows, 1997 English poetry Nights of Wine and Insomnia, 1997 The Doves of the Sultan, 1998 Arabic Poetry Songs to the Morning Rose, 2000, Arabic Poetry The Quiet Euphrates, A historical Novel, 2014. Under publication: Chasing the Sunrays, an autobiography Yearning to the Iraqi Sun, poetry 2014 His poetry is published in many periodicals, newspapers, and websites around the world.