Poem - Earth’s Peace, Poet - Kareem Abdullah (Iraq)

Earth’s Peace

Kareem Abdullah (Iraq)

At the hush of dawn, the earth rises — solemn, luminous  —as though rousing from centuries of sleep. She dusts the soot of wars from her skin, and opens her arms to a wind bearing the fragrance of rain and the hymn of first birds.

Peace is no mere banner, nor the echo of tired speeches. It is a breath, soft and unseen, that brushes a child’s cheek and leaves in the iris a small, radiant tomorrow. It is not a flag raised skyward, but roots intertwined in the dark of the soil, like human hands discovering each other after the silence of fear has lifted.

Upon the high ridges, winds murmur like an ancient psalm, washing the echoes of iron from memory, granting the trees the right to breathe once more.

Rivers, in their patient tongues, utter prayers without translation, yet every ear can understand them  — for each drop carries the signature of a dreamer who once believed in life.

Cities, at first light, open their eyes as children who have never learned the name of war. Windows laugh. Light, like a gentle musician, strikes its notes upon the weary walls.

When humankind sets its weapons down, it remembers its hands were born for sowing, for embracing, for lifting new heavens above its head.

And the earth  — when the cannons have forgotten their thunder — answers ruin with wheat and stars, answers darkness with the patient music of light.

Peace is not distant. It flows beneath the rubble of fear, a hidden river, waiting for a single hand to carve a window into the stone.

And on this morning, under the hush of a kind rain, the people walk — unarmed, bare-hearted.

Every drop whispers:

We are the children of the earth, not soldiers of shadow. We are the blossom of life  — not its ash.

©KAREEM ABDULLAH 

Curriculum Vitae

Name: Kareem Kata’a Abdullah Al-Akaily

Pen Name: Kareem Abdullah

Member of the General Union of Writers and Authors in Iraq

Academic Qualifications: Diploma in Public Health – Psychotherapeutic Rehabilitation Specialist

Place of Residence: Iraq – Baghdad

Publications:

The Passion and the Myth (2014), published by Al-Adalah Printing, Publishing & Distribution Company, Baghdad

Passion in the Time of Exile (2013), published by Al-Farahidi Publishing & Distribution House

The Flutes of Longing (2014), co-authored, published by Mesopotamia House

Gray Pain and a Virgin’s Palm (2015), published by Dar Al-Amal, Syria; Second Edition (2018), published by Dar Maten, Baghdad

Your Images Bathe Naked Behind Velvet Curtains (2016), published by Dar Baghdad

Baghdad in Her New Dress (2015), First Edition, published by Dar Ketab, Egypt; Second Edition (2018), published by Dar Maten, Baghdad

The Streets Menstruate, Wiping the Shoes of the Invaders (2016), published by Dar Baghdad

Heavier Pupils with Your Damp Images (Arabic-Spanish, 2017), published by Dar Ur

The Complete Works, Volume One (2021), published by Dar Al-Warsha

The Complete Works, Volume Two (2021), published by Dar Maten

Passion (2021), published by Dar Maten

Hammerat Schwarzkopf (2021), published by Dar Al-Warsha

The Orange Lily (2021), co-authored with Palestinian poet Rahma Anab, published by Dar Al-Warsha

Your Red Bra (2021), published by Dar Maten

Kareem Abdullah and Psychodrama (2017), published by Dar Baghdad

Psychodrama Plays (2019), published by Dar Maten, Baghdad

Novels:

Betrayal in the Folds of the Mind (2021), published by Dar Al-Warsha

What Sisyphus Didn’t Say in His Mad Memoirs (2022), published by Abjad Foundation

Fruits of Psychosis (Manuscript)

The Last Jewish Shuhait (Manuscript)

The Dossier (Manuscript)

Journey of the Mad Seeker (Manuscript)

Criticism:

Kareem Abdullah and Expressive Narrative (Critical Studies), by Dr. Anwar Ghani Al-Moussawi

Critical Studies on the Poet Kareem Abdullah's Experience (2017), published by Dar Maten, Baghdad

Critical Books:

The Aesthetic of the Female Voice in the Expressive Narrative Poem (2019), published by Dar Maten, Baghdad

Titling and Sensory Significations (2023), published by Abjad

Manifestations of Language in the Expressive Narrative Poem (Manuscript)

On the Shores of Beauty - Critical Readings (Manuscript)

Psychological Readings in Narrative Expressive Poems

Philosophical Readings in Narrative Expressive Poems

Radiance – On Kurdish Feminist Literature

In the Field of Playwriting and Theater Direction:

The Stranger (Psychodrama), 2000

Schizophrenia (Psychodrama), 2003

The Deputy of Death, 2004

Ignorance and Deprivation (Psychodrama), 2005

The Tale of a Woman (Psychodrama), 2007

The Last Night of Haytham (Psychodrama), 2011

Our Homeland (2015)

Memoirs of a Retiree (Psychodrama), 2016

Psychodrama Plays (2019), published by Dar Maten, Baghdad

Documentary Films:

Directed and filmed dozens of documentary and short films.

Note: All of these plays feature characters who are mental patients residing in hospitals.

Translations:

His poetic works have been translated into English, Spanish, French, and Italian.

Brief Biography:

Kareem Abdullah is an Iraqi poet and writer, born in Baghdad in 1962. His book Baghdad in Her New Dress was published in 2015 by Book House. His name has appeared in several significant Arabic literary magazines, and he won the Tajdeed Prose Poetry Prize in 2016. Kareem has published eight poetry collections in Arabic, and his poetry has been translated into many languages