A Woman Who Fefied the Laws of Passage, Author - Kareem Abdullah (Iraq)

A Woman Who Fefied the Laws of Passage
Kareem Abdullah


My heart was the sieve of an ancient prophet… women fell through it like rain through holes in the clouds, woman after woman, life after life, until I thought love was merely water that doesn't linger long in the palm of the soul.

All those who passed through me were like fleeting seasons: one arrives carried on her perfume, then melts like salt in the mouth of the wind. One left her shawl on the chair of evening, another hung her laughter on the window of the heart and then departed, and a third slept a while in the bed of the poem and awoke in another man.

But you…
O beautiful mistake of God when He sculpted a woman from the wonder of light, then hid her in a body of music… you did not pass through.  You were the only stone caught in the holes of the sieve, and for the first time, my heart was bewildered. It felt that it wasn't perforated as it had long believed, but rather that it had been waiting for its impossible star.
Who are you?
How did you enter this ruin adorned with women and not fall? How could your fingers mend the cracks left by emotional wars in the walls of my soul?
Whenever you drew near, I heard the sea arranging its waves like a celestial choir, and I saw the night shedding its darkness and sitting at your feet like a captivated hermit.

You are not a woman… You are the confusion of the primordial elements before the universe was set in order. In your eyes, I saw galaxies altering their orbits, and I saw time stumble upon your dress and fall to its knees like a terrified lover.  Now I know why all the other women passed me by: because my heart was practicing on you. It was learning how to endure a woman unlike any other, a woman whose smile would open an extra window in the sky for angels.
You didn't just pass by… you settled like an eternal prayer in the most fragile place within me.
And since I've known you, I'm no longer a sieve… I've become a galaxy, all its stars revolving around your name.

©®Kareem Abdullah




Biography:

Name: Karim Katea Abdullah Al-Akeeli

Penal Name: Karim Abdullah

Member of the General Union of Writers and Authors in Iraq

Education: Diploma in Public Health – Psychological Rehabilitation Therapist

Place of Residence: Iraq – Baghdad

Published Works:

Poetry Collection (Love and Legend), published by Al-Adala Group for Printing, Publishing and Distribution / Al-Adala Press, Baghdad, 2014

Poetry Collection (Love in a Time of Exile), published by Al-Farahidi Publishing and Distribution House, 2013

Poetry Collection (Flutes of Longing) (Joint Collection), published by Mesopotamia Publishing House, 2014

Poetry Collection (Gray Pain and a Virgin's Palm), published by Al-Amal Publishing House in Syria, 2015. / Second Edition, published by Matn Publishing House, Baghdad, 2018.

The poetry collection "Your Images Bathe Naked Behind Velvet Curtains" was published by Dar Baghdad in 2016.

The poetry collection "Baghdad in Its New Guise" was published by Dar Kitab in Egypt in 2015 (first edition), and a second edition was published by Dar Matn Baghdad in 2018.

The poetry collection "The Streets Menstruate, Wiping the Boots of Invasion" was published by Dar Baghdad in 2016.

The poetry collection "Pupils Heavy with Your Damp Images" (Arabic-Spanish) was published by Dar Ur in 2017.

The Complete Works, Volume One, was published by Dar Al Warsha in 2021.

The Complete Works, Volume Two, was published by Dar Matn in 2021.

The poetry collection "Love" was published by Dar Matn in 2021.

The poetry collection "Hamrat Schwarzkopf" was published by Dar Al Warsha in 2021.

The poetry collection "The Orange Lily" was co-authored with the Palestinian poet Rahma Annab and published by Dar Al Warsha in 2021.

The Red Soutiank Collection, Darmatten, 2021.

Karim Abdullah's Book on Psychodrama, Dar Baghdad, 2017.

The Direction Where God Wept Collection, Jar Al-Matn, 2026.

You Are the Only Woman Who Saw My Soul Collection.

Al-Hussein in His Uprising Collection.

Sufi Fragments Collection.

Psychodrama Plays, Dar Al-Matn, Baghdad, 2019.

Novels:

Betrayal in the Convolutions of the Mind, Dar Al-Warsha, 2021.

What Sisyphus Didn't Say in His Mad Memoirs, Abjad Foundation, 2022.

The Fruits of Psychosis (manuscript).

The Last Jewish Shohit (manuscript).

The File (manuscript).

The Journey of the Mad Traveler (manuscript)

Artificial Love (manuscript)

When My Mother Got Married (manuscript)

In Criticism

1- I published the book (Karim Abdullah and Expressive Narrative): Critical Studies by Dr. Anwar Ghani Al-Mousawi.

2- Critical Studies on the Experience of the Poet Karim Abdullah / Matn Publishing House / Baghdad / 2017.

Critical Books:

1. The Aesthetics of the Feminine Voice in the Expressive Narrative Poem – Matn Publishing House, Baghdad, 2019.


Titling and Sensory Connotations, Abjad Publishing House, 2023.

Manifestations of Language in the Expressive Narrative Poem (manuscript).

On the Banks of Beauty - Critical Readings (manuscript).

Psychological Readings in Expressive Narrative Poems.

Philosophical Readings in Expressive Narrative Poems.

Illuminations - On Kurdish Feminist Literature.

Specters of Pain and Manifestations of Life: Stylistic Readings in the Poetry Collection "Grasses of a Woman in Her Fifties, Tears" by the poet Salwa Hussein.


Voices of the Heart: A Journey Between Emotions and Hopes: Critical Readings of the Italian Poet Elisa Masia's Work (in Italian, 2025).

Poems with Delicate Fingers: Characteristics of the Female Voice Across Different Continents (Volumes 1, 2, and 3) (in Italian, published by Amazon, Italy, 2025).

Love Letters Between Rome and Baghdad (Volumes 1 and 2, in Arabic and Italian, published by Amazon, Italy, 2026).

In the field of playwriting and directing:

The Stranger (psychodrama) 2000

Schizophrenia (psychodrama) 2003

Deputy of Death 2004

Ignorance and Deprivation (psychodrama) 2005

A Woman's Story (psychodrama) 2007

Haitham's Last Night (psychodrama) 2011

Our Homeland 2015

Memoirs of a Retiree (psychodrama) 2016

Psychodrama Plays – Dar Al-Mutan, Baghdad 2019

10. Filming of dozens of documentary and feature films.

Note: All of these plays feature mentally ill patients hospitalized in the hospital.

His poetry has been translated into English, Spanish, French, Italian, Taiwanese, Portuguese, Greek, Bengali, Hindi, Persian, and Kurdish etc.