Ahmad Al-Khatat Returns!

Tonight I'd like to welcome back Ahmad Al-Khatat, the Iraqi-born poet who has recently published the book Wounds from Iraq.  I also think that he has been on Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram's Quintessential Listening twice!

The Invisible Spirit

Ahmad Al-Khatat

The night is long, long as
the stars are falling apart
and so my tears are the
rain on the child's cheeks

I thought that love would
make us lucky, and happy
until I realized that one of us
must pretend that I'm dead

Trust was the most beautiful
word we have had in our talks
sadly, it was replaced with a
betrayal and dangerous faith

The invisible spirit forgot to
teach me how to die without
weapon, nor a case of twelve
beers, yet the night is still long

Photograph by Ilkin Safterov

Read My Wounds

I don't deserve to live in this world
mainly, because my dreams are hidden
from me as my bare feet are chained

Maybe my time should have ended as
every night, my eyes begin to cry,
she disappeared from my cigarette
smoke and was harder to drink just water

My hopes are the graffiti on the walls
after the fire, nothing stays but my ashes.
keep my story away from your loving ones
just remember that you have read my wounds

Make peace with love from the body
of someone you trust, to share more than a
lips kiss, as my mistakes are my everyday lies
to hide my death on my last birthday

Photograph by Rennett Stowe

Roofs of Dreams

The roofs of memories are dusty
as much as the roofs of my dreams
even when my heart beats like a
wild animal and never dies in my mind

My mother’s first cookie tasted of strong
grief, since then I understood the
reasons why my baby was endlessly crying
as he now knows that he was born,

He was born to die with a civilian’s uniform
and never look beyond the sunset.
The baby girl now knows she will always
be a widow, and the uncrowned queen

Autumn leaves in Montreal have fortunes,
but in Baghdad they have wheels of misfortunes
while orphans sing along with ashes of
angels in heaven fall in the sea of lost freedom

Photograph by Isabella Mendes

Expensive Prayer

I wish I had more mistakes than sins
I want to have my brain cells fully damaged
as the friend I always trusted before is
now a dark cloud in my miserable season

Love is blind more than love is happiness
as it is an expensive prayer for me
even my siblings are deaf to hear the beats
of my broken heart from the liquor I drink

Grains of salt are above the roof of my mouth
meanwhile, I never swam in a salty ocean
nor; added salt on my tasteless plates of food
I just lick salt off my hand after I drink a few shots

I respect more faces then they deserve
only death is the path to end my anxieties
dark poems won't solve anything about life
those tears will later fall along with ruby blood

Ahmad Al-Khatat, was born in Baghdad, Iraq on May 8th. He has been published in several press publications and anthologies all over the world and has poems translated in several languages. He has published three poetry books "Wounds from Iraq," “The Bleeding Heart Poet,” and “Love On The War’s Frontline” which are available on Amazon. Most of his new and old poems are also available on his official page Bleeding Heart Poet on Facebook. 

I'll start with a live version of Dr. Lonnie Smith's "All in My Mind":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzRxCCkChfo

This is his "Devika," also live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53FBXpTnDiE

Since Ahmad is living in Montreal these days, I thought I'd include Leonard Cohen's "Dance Me to the End of Love": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zjLBWnZGTU

If you would like to purchase Ahmad's latest book, here is a link: https://www.amazon.com/Wounds-Iraq-Ahmad-Al-Khatat/dp/1950433110/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Ahmad+Alkhatat&qid=1565580230&s=gateway&sr=8-1

I just noticed that he also has some work in an anthology that pays tribute to Leonard Cohen:   https://www.amazon.com/Anthem-Tribute-Leonard-Ahmad-Al-Khatat-ebook/dp/B07715YVBW/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Ahmad+Alkhatat&qid=1565580333&s=gateway&sr=8-2

Enjoy!