The Iraqi Nights (New Directions Paperbook)

each poem required an earmark, lovely and haunting.

I love this book of poetry. Alive. Graphic. Surprising. Mikhail's poems will inspire you to write better poems.

Touching and DelightfulThis is the second collection of poems, in translation, by Dunya Mikhail. As it is the case with her first book of poetry "The War Works Hard" and her lyrical memoir "Diary of a Wave under the Sea," the poems in this collection are written with sensitivity and poetic intimacy. Many of these poems are accompanied by delightful illustrations - drawn in ancient Sumerian style by the poet herself - and her handwritten original poems in Arabic. Arabic speakers are able to enjoy the beauty of these poems as they were originally created, and also to appreciate the excellent work that the translator, Kareem Abu-Zeid, has done in his translation.What I find most appealing in Mikhail's poetry is the simplicity of her style and the way in which she surprises her readers with her wit and profound observations:The shadowsthe prisoners lefton the wallsurrounded the jailerand cast lighton his loneliness. (p 26)Or as in:The person who gazed at me for so long,and whose gaze I returned for just as long ...The man who never once embraced me,and whom I never once embraced ...The rain wrecked the colors around himon that old canvas. (p 22)Ever since she was fifteen years old, Mikhail has felt the effect of war or its aftermath in her native Iraq. This experience has a profound effect on her and is reflected - perhaps subconsciously at times - in her poetry. In "The War Woks Hard," she gave one of her gentlest poems the title "Non-Military Statements." As another example, in the last poem in this volume, which is devoted to her daughter Larsa, she uses military images and expressions to express her love for her:...You open your armsAnd I know just how much I love you:I love you higher than the smoke in the city;I love you louder than the explosions;I love you deeper than the wounds,Iraqi and American,From an IED;...I love you wider than the fearthat brims in a time of war;... (p 83)Yet, despite the years of war and other distressing experiences, Mikhail remains positive and optimistic. Her poem "The End of the War" begins by declaring that everyone and everything tell her that the end of the world is near; the astrologers, the deadly new viruses, the wars, and others all have the same "cold and curt" message. But she ends the poem with the following lines:But other things change my mind:The clouds that always know their way,The seashell that hasn't quite disclosed all,The wishes tossed with coins in the fountain,And the flower waiting to happen.Verses like these bring delight to every heart. You can't go wrong by ordering this book.Fawzi M. YaqubFredonia, NY

Byline: Subterranean Blue Poetry (www.subterraneanbluepoetry.com)Title of Book: The Iraqi NightsAuthor: Dunya MikhailTranslator: Kareem James Abu-ZeidPublisher: New Directions PapberbookDate of Publication: 2013Page Count: 112“I love the rainy night”- from I Love the Rainy Night by Eddie RabbittThe Iraqi Nights, a brilliant read in poetic form and grace . . . enigmatic, of the divine feminine and the goddess Oracle as Poet, by Dunya Mikhail. Poet Mikhail is a journalist from wartorn Iraq, after receiving threats from her government she emigrated to the United States. She has won awards for her writing and lives in Michigan, teaching at Oakland University. This is the third book of poetry she has written, the first two being, The War Works Hard, Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea, and the first I have reviewed. The afternoon is blue with overcast sky writing into evening, a child next door cries, and strains of “I love the rainy night” play through the quiet. The poetry . . . borrowing allusions from ancient Greece, ancient poetry and fairytales, the images of nature are quiet and beautiful with the story of a love affair interwoven in the lost peace of a wartorn land. Exotic, and painting a picture of a lost Mazetlan, the beauty of the life and the people of the Middle East.This book of poetry begins with an allusion to Scheherazade. The famous story of Scheherazade is about a Persian King, Shahryar who everyday married a virgin wife and then had the previous day’s wife beheaded. He thought the previous wives unfaithful. He had killed 1,000 women by the time he was introduced to Scheherazade. In the Kings chambers at night, the well read Scheherazade spun an exciting story which was only half finished at dawn. The King asked her to finish but she said she would continue the story the next night. This went on for 1,001 nights and 1,000 stories, at the end of which she told him she had no more stories for him. Over all those nights of stories, the King had fallen in love with Scheherazade and he made her his wife.The magic of the prelude begins, “In the land of Summer, where the houses are packed so closely together that their walls touch, where people sleep on rooftops in the summer and lovers climb the walls to see one another, and where lovers marry young, though their parents always refuse at first …” then the lovers Ishtar and Tammuz are introduced and she is shopping for a gift for her lover and wants to buy him everything. “On her way back, she was kidnapped by some masked men. They dragged her onward, leaving her mothers outstretched hand behind her forever. They brought her down into the underworld through seven gates. These poems Ishtar wrote on the gates suggest that she wasn’t killed at once. Or perhaps her words drew her abductor’s attention away from thoughts of murder.” So the poetry begins in magic despite violence, the metaphors and images of nature are painted into surrealistic landscapes of great beauty, perhaps borrowing from the Symbolist school. Against the backdrop of war a mythos of peace is created in the feminine.Tablets1.She pressed her ear against the shell:she wanted to hear everythinghe never told her.5.Water needs no warsto mix with waterand fill the blank spaces.7.He watches TVWhile she holds a novel.On the novel’s coverthere’s a man watching TVand a woman holding a novel.20.Cinderella left her slipper in Iraqalong with the smell of cardamomwafting from the teapot,and the huge flower,its mouth gaping like death.There is the story of the loss of a lover, the war, the violence of lost love, the story of a lost homeland. Throughout the poetry there is the juxtaposition of a land of peace, a land of love and the lost place, the place of violence. In A Second Life, this life is compared to a prison while the coming life, the second life is that of freedom. Despite the violence, the book ends on the birth of Larsa, fantastical and positive despite great loss. With the writings are black and white pictures of runes or Tablets, perhaps with the Arabic language, illuminating the poetry.This poetry is the sacred ground of doves, both profound and iconic, I look for more work by this Poet. The Iraqi Nights by Dunya Mikhail.