Review of Wounds from Iraq

"Wounds from Iraq" photographed against "Exploding Flower" by Julie Carpenter

Wounds from Iraq 
Author Ahmad Al-Khatat


by Julie Carpenter

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​This chapbook is slim, with a simple and effective black and white cover that features the face of a child with a slash of red, a callout both to war and to the flag of the poet’s wounded country. I don’t like to write long reviews of chapbooks, because I want to allow the reader to discover the contents for themselves with little prejudice. This book is even slimmer than most of the poetry books I review, however, though it contains few pages, each is a deep well of sorrow. This book bears the same scars as the author’s heart. His bereavement and grief for Iraq come through in every word. 
 

His deep sense of displacement, the mourning of beauty and safety now lost in the dust of war, makes him a prophet of lamentation.  The context of his poetry may be physically located far from where his readers are, but no matter, you will find the true location of his sadness in the universal heart of a world where death often reigns with icy cruelty. As he opens up the eyes of the soul to the reality of his own grief, you will find your heart mourning with him, for yourself, for the fragility of your own happiness, and for a world which would allow such things to happen.

The occasionally broken English serves only to make his broken heart more transparent. The poems themselves are sometimes sharp and almost linear as in Grief and Palm Trees in Iraq which makes a strongly delineated pattern on the page with the repetitive ‘a’ in the first line as it marks everyday objects and concept that now cause grief.
 
Grief and Palm Trees in Iraq
 
Grief in
Iraq
could be 
everything
a great religion 
a damaged faith
a good holiday
a miserable widow
a heartbroken orphan
a wounded soldier
 
like a regular palm tree
in Iraq
It could be; 
a dusty chair
a hungry plate
a forgotten table
a dirty shirt
a delicious fruit
a bottle of water
 
 
On the other hand, some of the poems like Iraq and The Broken gates move all the way across the page, taking up space and time, begging for the reader’s attention, needing room to express the loss and despair. 
 
All of these poems are haunting and heart-rending. Sacred chickens has published Al-Khatat's poetry (here and here), and we highly recommend this book and this poet. You can find other works by Ahmad Al-Khatat by going to his page.
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Bio:
Julie Carpenter is the creator of the Sacred Chickens website and Author of Things Get Weird in Whistlestop. She is dedicated to telling stories and making sure that indie writers and publishers have a way to be heard.  She uses narrative, her own and others’, to help interpret the world. She has a Master of Professional Writing from the University of Memphis, with an emphasis in Composition Theory. She wants to bend reality one story at a time.  Julie’s work has appeared in Fiction on the Web and will be included The New Guard. She is currently working on a novel and starting a podcast where people can tell her about their weird ideas.

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