Faleeha Hassan, poem
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Faleeha Hassan
LIKE T.S. ELIOT'S MEN
The fortune teller had told him about me,
before he fell in love with another woman
Who resembles him
Beautiful and useless
And like all those before her,
The smoke of patience did not mark her forehead,
She did not rush through years of minutes made from broken glass
And a fragment did not take refuge in her right shoulder.
They walked whispering,
While the fortune-teller sighed and repeated:
It is not as clear as it should be
Years after,
I saw him,
Hollow,
Covered with rust and ash
When confessing,
Splinters scattered as he said:
- I wish the clarity were that clear!
MY MOM’S COOKIES
Ingredients:
“All kind of flour, some dates,
a bit of oil, cardamom,
splash of water, and pinch of sugar”
How to make it:
If all the women in the world were gathered,
not one could make what my mother used to make.
And she was....
Spread the ground
To bless the wheat grains, it becomes a breeze,
To the dates to become a deliciousness is created
To the oil, it writhes like a sea foetus
To cardamom pods, they dance
in the heart of the mortar like silk atoms
when it matures, the sugar is sprinkled,
warmth fills, the light glows,
She takes it out while repeating:
- O mother and father, this is for you,
so eat well and wholesomely
Quietly they come,
Like the smell of Gardenia,
they fill the house with their smell,
In 2006
They took her with them
my mom
The house collapsed
Orphans filled my bed
And
like the earth falling onto the earth,
my father died.
MY LIFE
My mother was in a hurry,
She didn’t dress me in the silk of her love
My father, on the other hand, is gone
My brother followed his steps
What is the matter with this family
They didn't bother to leave some drops of honey,
So, my life remained bitter and severe
Once I asked my grandmother
- Do you love me?
She stuttered: - Who do I have but you?
And when I found him searching on his computer
I asked why your mind is just occupied
with the whisper of screens,
Do you love me?
He mumbled, "Who do I have but you?"
TO BE A REFUGEE
Means you walk with a mute dignity
And because the touch has a memory,
you can no longer make another one.
No sea can reveal to you the joy of its flowing,
and its every wave is shackled with corpses
and identities of drowned people;
no land will welcome your shy steps.
To be a refugee
You have to wear a stainless smile in front
of their serrated gaze.
You have to get rid of your ancient history,
Your mother's prayer for your safety,
which no longer works
The wisdom of your ancestors,
which they left to you before they
disappeared into their graves.
To be like me,
You have to peel off your skin, pull out your tongue,
to get along with the crowds that are waiting
for any slight movement from you to finish you off.
Above all, you have to be very sane in the streets
that know nothing but where madness erupts,
And like swimming in a river of blood,
you will remain stained until the end.
EVEN MY HUSBAND DOES NOT KNOW I'M A WOMAN!
Every time I speak with him about the river,
His mouth waters at the smell of fish,
He starts to count the clothespins
and watches the weather forecast when
I smile at the clouds,
But he loves me if I'm
Limited as a booklet,
Thin as the remnants of Pencils,
Amazing as a clean white shirt in a coal mine.
Faithful as the glasses of a blind man
And beautiful as a broken wall clock!
……………………….
Faleeha Hassan
She is a poet, teacher, editor, writer, and playwright born in Najaf, Iraq, in 1967, who now lives in the United States. Faleeha was the first woman to write poetry for children in Iraq. She received her master's degree in Arabic literature, and has now published 29 books, her poems have been translated into English, Turkmen, Bosnian, Indian, French, Italian, German, Kurdish, Spain, Korean, Greek, Serbia, Albanian, Pakistani, Romanian, Malayalam, Chinese, ODIA, Nepali, Macedonian Russian language.
Three-time best-selling author on Amazon.
Pulitzer Prize Nomination 2018,
PushCaret Prize Nomination 2019.
Member of the International Writers and Artists Association.
Winner of the Women of Excellence Inspiration award from SJ magazine 2020,
Winner of the Grand Jury Award (the Sahitto International Award for Literature 2021)
One of the Women of Excellence selection committees 2023
Winner of the Women's Arts Award 2023
Member of Who’s Who in America 2023
SAHITTO AWARD, JUDGING PANEL 2023
Winner of the HerStory Award from the Women’s Federation for World Peace, New Jersey, 2024
Winner of the 2025 Naij Naaman Literary Prize.
Winner of the ScreaminMama magazine poetry contest 2025
Cultural Ambassador - Iraq, USA, since 2018
Cultural Ambassador and worldwide literary advisor, PEN CRAFT Bangladesh
Honoured to be appointed as a 2024 Peace Ambassador by the Universal Peace Federation, Member of the Founding Mothers Global Women’s Congress 2024
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