Best Tigris Poems
Life, in the cruelty of morning light,
Is a strand of copper blond hair
With auburn roots, asleep on a pillow.
Are you waiting for the snail mail
To bring you the implant
That will explode in your head?
Or will you dedicate your life
To multiplication of garbage that oozed
Into ancestral rivers, lakes and skies?
Will you let blood bubble on the Tigris
Or become a collector of limbs in Grozny,
While I inaugurate a thousand Darfurs?
Will we terrorize freedom in freedom’s name?
Goliath, let us fortify, let us amend,
Or one day David will pelt us with a catapult,
Blood will copiously flow
From our forehead into our eyes,
We will be blinded, unless we already are.
Deep cleansing milk has to be sold by the gallon,
And, of course, Listerine.
Categories:
tigris, introspection, life, people,
Form:
Blank verse
In the vast plain sits the panthera tigris
The largest among the cat species
Beautiful in black striped orange fur
Fierce, the tiger howls but seldom purr
A splendor that commands attention
Elegant long limbs gentle in its motion
She is feared for the span of her length
She is fearless, they knew her strength
In the cruel jungle where she lives
The sun shines but it always retreats
Lush greens turn into muddy sprouts
A cue on what the sky is about to spout
She listlessly walked back and forth
An action perceived to show her worth
Yet the tiger was in fear of the brewing rain
Waters from heaven brings back all the pain
However fierce, the tiger is not without fear
Mostly for her fold she holds very dear
She dreads the storm will havoc damage
When it pours its ceaseless cascades
While the tempest ravages her world
The tiger firmly stands in the freezing cold
Though this will cease just like before
She feels she cannot take it anymore
When from the rain she was saved
By a fellow cat who is more than brave
Scarred and lashed by many a storm
The lion offered hope, she gave her home
Yet the rain brings the tiger more fear
Protective of the lion she loved so dear
She knows tomorrow is never promised
She has to be strong, she can conquer this!
Categories:
tigris, courage, metaphor,
Form:
Rhyme
Your left eye is Tigris,your right is Euphoria,your nose is mesopotamia.
Categories:
tigris, water,
Form:
I can still feel the weight of the heat colliding with my face as I first stepped off the plane,
And how beads of sweat would tickle my neck the same as when it rained,
How the harsh odor of the atmosphere would nauseate my nose,
And the courage of a people despite our impose,
I hear the splashing of the Tigris as I kneel to rinse my hands,
And how it felt to think that nothing’s promised, even on promised lands,
From wailing sirens and the buzz of the Phalanx at night,
To the popping of shots and the whooshing of helos in flight,
From the honking of horns and roads without lanes,
To swishing through traffic and the jingling of chains,
I hear the whispers of prayer being broadcast through the air,
And the murmurs of locals and their unwelcomed stares,
To the thuds of percussions from bombs in my chest,
Detonated afar but still rattled my vest,
But of all that I remember, I’m fully aware,
That I've left a piece of me there.
Categories:
tigris, military, poetry, veterans day,
Form:
Other
The Mourning Morning 100 and 50 Years On
Robert Graves lies in Wilfried Owen’s grave ponders the War
to end all Wars that continue with nothing else for us in store
and Barry Mc Guire sang summed it all up in 65 in destruction’s
eve thereof a cold dawn of reckoning conscience lost ever more
My Lai lives on and Srebrenica in naked truth of persecution
soars Wall Street Abrams Challenger Tanks as the best solution
for keeping pacifism social justice common sense at dismembered
arm’s length and loss still counts body bags for the good of delusion
Wounded Knee White and other blood rivers Tigris Euphrates
Nyabarongo swell swollen this morning today at great ease
with buried tears pounding of drums the pride and disgrace’
falsified messages broken walls shots of money’s droned lease
You can’t bury the dead and not leave a trace but attempt very well
to photo-shop engage propaganda erase meaning and sell sell sell
Marches alone will not consign madness ethnic cleansing proven
genocidal greedy insanity but disapprove sin and continue to tell
About 'Eve Of Destruction' like Graves Ghandi Mc Guire 50 years on
tune protest poetry and rock ballads shout clear in more than a song
Contemplate on the call up imagine a battle and nobody goes forth
scream howl against dogs of war and their masters please sing along
31st August 2016
Categories:
tigris, war,
Form:
Rhyme
Let me take you to such a place
Where all of the sadness are erased
Where there is no discrimination between a gender or race
Where there isn't any trace of a devil, sin nor there is any disgrace
Where angels sing you lullabies
This is a place where nobody ever cries
A place where only love and love lies
Justice prevails all over it, lion and deer lives in peace
Here the birds wake you up with their sweet melodies
This is a place lightened by God
Every corners of it are made up of transparent gold
The floor is made up of marbels and expensive rocks
Here the sun shines like emerald cut diamond
And translucent glasses are used to make a perfect horizon
There are two rivers like tigris and euphraties
Between them is a shade covered by a canopy
Here all the animal lives proudly in vanity
And all the trees bear fruit abundantly
This is a place where all of your wishes come true
Here you will have whatever you desire
And the people who hurt you shall be in a glistening fire
Even the water of oceans flow silently here
It will rain but there shall never be a storm or fear
You will marvel at looking at the beauty of this sight
Rivers of milk and alcohol flows and there are trees of life
Here all are equal, there is no black, no white
All walk together in the moon light
People reside there forever
And beside each one homes a river flows
A place which is too holy for devil to enter
Give the goodnews to poors that it is for only poors and repenters
Here the first ray of sun signals the dawn of hope
And every imperfection is wash away by glistening rain
Sun may shine or there might be a shadow
But there will never be any sorrow, tear or pain
16 September 2018
Categories:
tigris, heaven,
Form:
Rhyme
It never takes me
More than a wink of an eye
To travel from the Levant people
To the people of Minoa
Via yellow river, Norte Chico
Egypt, Harappa and Mesopotamia
I’d seen enough falls and rises
Like the ocean’s weaves
Embedded with few moment’s high tides
And receding low ebbs
While living in houses of Uruk and Memphis
I encountered with enough love and hate
To satisfy their basic instincts
Some went too low, some were too great
To preserve human development and progress.
In the course of my travelling
Through the great river Nile
Among the valleys of Euphrates and Tigris
I’d seen wonderful minds
In heaps of war, conspiracy, deception and lies
With multiple injuries
When I laid in the trenches of lust and greed
In the battle fields of Polynesia
I’d seen the indomitable human spirit
How it withheld the cruelties of Athenians and Spartans
And pushed forward the great human civilization
………………to be continued ……..
Categories:
tigris, mythology, wisdom,
Form:
Free verse
Noah survived the flood with sons Japheth, Ham, and Shem.
Along with the animals of the earth, God spared them.
With floods, He vowed never again to do such a thing.
God made a covenant with Noah and his offspring:
“You and your sons shall populate the world as you go.
Look up into the clouds and you shall see My rainbow.
This is a sign the covenant is everlasting.
All creatures shall thrive, along with each human being.”
Noah’s grandson, firstborn of Ham, Canaan was his name.
He had to serve Shem and Japheth because he brought shame.
Ham also gave birth to Cush; who in turn brought Raamah.
Raamah extended the line with Dedan and Sheba.
Shem was fruitful producing many generations.
Arphaxad and Aram’s progeny would lead nations.
Among Japheth’s seven sons were Gomer and Javan
Their descendents also had produced many children.
Among Ham’s descendents was a king who defied God.
A mighty hunter and warrior, he was Nimrod.
His kingdom had contained land from Babylonia.
Moreover, it stretched as far south as Assyria.
His great cities included Calah and Nineveh.
They lived on land between the Euphrates and Tigris.
His people united and strong were making progress.
Nimrod proclaimed, “We have one language and great power.
Let us assemble and raise a very tall tower.
This ziggurat will provide a stairway to a star.
We are an ambitious people, and we can go far!”
A new great city appeared on the plain of Shinar.
With formidable walls constructed with bricks and tar.
God realized these persons were filling with contempt,
He wished to halt their foolhardy fallacious attempt.
Perplexing their language among them caused confusion.
They stopped construction and divided with diffusion.
God’s almighty power can never be defeated.
Therefore, the Tower Of Babel was not completed.
A ziggurat is a temple of Babylonian architecture resembling a pyramid. It begins
with either a square or a rectangular base. Additional stories with smaller floor
space create a terrace effect on each level.
Genesis Chapters 8-11
.
Categories:
tigris, religionlanguage, language,
Form:
Rhyme
The Tigris and Euphrates,
they flow like time,
murmuring and sighing
and running their individual courses,
cradling Mesopotamia,
their land,
in life,
and flooding the plain in alluvial soil,
for cities to put down deep roots,
the wonder of humanity.
Categories:
tigris, allusion, life, love, miracle,
Form:
Prose Poetry
We embrace the craze for the garbage
Sacrificing your sometimes fragrant calls
Shifting from paper to paper
Like skyscraper the same garbage
In every news every daily
Spillage of helpless human blood
Lumps of life in lust for lawless illness
Your dance my darling is being punctured
This is a time of black adventure
Garbage hoarded deep down there
Garbage learned and reinforced with care
Releasing through lone wolf and grenades
You offered me many a window
Even in my stuffy room in a slum
You proffered me a few pigeons
To my breast to write poems
To even your gifts I preferred garbage
And now it rules our life and world
Garbage of pent up anger and irritation
The rampaging truck on Bastille Day
Turning the whole landscape macabre
The world is at the mercy of peace robbers
Did we create it by dumping garbage
In Tigris and Euphrates decades ago
The hyper-material world is turning garbage
Candles no more flicker at the daily carnage
_____________________________________________________
July 17, 2016
Categories:
tigris, allusion, anxiety, bird, conflict,
Form:
Free verse
We multiply by a bomb
Then we bear another.
We drag our children into passport documents.
We multiply far from the bedroom
And spit on our wedding day -
never paying attention to the tears.
On the TV screen
Baghdad storms us with bridges
Carnage of the Al Hadidi* fell in the Tigris -
It disappeared, taking refuge in the gulf
And I became a refugee on buses and newspapers.
I shake
At the first border check point
And I shake
When I hear the news
And I shake
Is there a lorry big enough for me,
For a passer by,
Who exchanged the capital of Al Rashid with a sea?
We’re farther from the wheels of the Mongols,
The black tea
And the darkness of Baghdad.
But the newsreader
Was still shooting at us with his news
While smiling.
* * * * *
The strangers
Ask me about the war.
No one asked me about the shrapnel that blasted the window,
The wardrobe where my dreams had heaped
Amongst metallic coins.
* * * * *
Baghdad
Is climbing another graveyard,
And I am like a cigarette between two fingers,
Standing far from her walls
Vomiting my dreams on a pavement in Damascus -
The smell old friends.
Friends who’re working in deception with joy
And the papers urinated on others.
Is homeland a terrace on a tanker
that treads on my dreams everyday
On Al Rashid street?
Or is homeland a dynamite freight
That brings joy to the children?
Jebla / Al Latheqiya 2007
* Al Hadidi: is the bridge of Sarrafiya in Baghdad. It was made of metal and was bombed in 2007.
Categories:
tigris, war,
Form:
ABC
Beyond a sandstorm’s gritty veil,
A solitary Bedouin,
Like a ghost in a sea of dunes,
Rides slowly along in the dusk.
The singing of rababah strings
Mimic the cooling evening winds;
Tambourines and flutes sound sadly
From the oasis where he’s bound.
His caravans once wound their ways
From the Atlas to the Tigris,
Trudging across the somber sands
Of a boundless and barren realm.
O Bedouin, where are thy tracks?
No hooves clatter in the wadis;
No trail of rotting camel dung.
O Bedouin, where are thy ways?
O Bedouin does your dirah
Yet teem with goat and camel flocks,
Since you have settled in the towns,
Which you once heaped with scorn and mocked?
O noble herdsman once so proud,
Tightly wrapped up in culture’s shroud,
Are you bottled up like the Djinn;
Forced to serve those who hemmed you in?
The rosy mirage of freedom
Is like a scarlet evening light
That paints the clouds with fiery hopes
Which fade in thralldom to the night.
Categories:
tigris, change, destiny, freedom, journey,
Form:
Free verse
Near the northern end
Of the Tigris river valley
there's the beautiful city of duhok
Next to the boarder of turkey
A city of many fruit orchards
A very popular tourist destination
with a fruit canning plant
That supplies the whole nation
With palm tress on both sides
Of the streets in straight lines
And in this beautiful city Duhok
Lives a very good friend of mines
its the most peaceful city in Iraq
Where the grass are so green
With two chains of mountains
and a flowers valley in between
From the clef mountain gully zawita
Bamarny and suara tuga resorts
Modern casinos, in the middle of gardens
With a combination of culture and sports
with happy children playing in the park
In the majestic garden of dream city
To the AMADIYA ANTIQUE CASTLE
A place of so many things to see
There is a girl with a great smile
Going to buy candy and sweets
Shes a;ways so kind and friendly
Bringing joy to every one she meets
and she keeps my heart
in the city of Duhok with her
so i,m always close to her chest
although our distance are so far
i have never seen her in person
but i love her with my heart and soul
she the only one i want to be with
although we,re from different part of the world
everything about her is perfect
shes beautiful smart and clever
and one day i will be in her arms
and its why i will stay forever
i know one day i will meet her
In the heart of this Iraqi town
We will go and have ice cream
And talk until the sun goes down
In the city of duhok
A place of pure magical beauty
Lives the most beautiful girl
In the world to me
Categories:
tigris, beautiful, beauty, best friend,
Form:
Light Verse
You are the pride of a nation
revealing the beauty of it's people
you reflect a nation's heart, mind, and soul
more brilliantly than pavo cristatus...
With grace and agility
you embody the power of your people
youthful energy unyielding strength
rivaled only by panthera tigris...
You are the nelumbo nucifera gaertn
the sacred flower of your people
keeper of art, music, mythology
guardian of it culture...
Your thoughts branch out into words
like the branches of the ficus bengalensis
which re-root themselves into fertile soil
those words take root in the hearts of your people
and become immortal...
You are more than the pride of a nation
Mundaka Upanishad scripture said
satyameva jayate
you are proof that truth alone triumphs...
Categories:
tigris, friendship,
Form:
Free verse
Grandma never told me in her stories
How the volcanoes are formed.
Grandma's God created only good things
The green, the sun, rivers, life...
God created Adam's and Eve's heart
From the calmness of Pishon river. *
But without nobody knowing
Fires started erupting in their hearts.
Life is like a river on fire these days
Do you feel something burning inside you?
Small or big, yellow or red...
It’s burning, but we all show a calm volcano face.
Volcanoes opened their heavenly calmness
To embrace the pains and flames of our tears...
Ages together it’s embracing our confessing hearts,
Grandma never told me about volcanoes...
-----------------
Note - The Pishon is one of four rivers (along with Hidekel (Tigris), Phrath (Euphrates) and Gihon) mentioned in the Biblical Book of Genesis. In that passage, these rivers are described as arising within the Garden of Eden.
Categories:
tigris, child, fire, grandmother, life,
Form:
Free verse