Insane Limits...
Limits ? What limits... I know no limits.
I stretch my left arm and I touch Ishtar,
I stretch my right arm and Hammurabi welcomes me.
What limits are you talking about ?
I draw breath and strength from my roots...
Every time the world shrinks around me, I look back...And my arm longs back 7'000 years...back, ago...
Every time life becomes too tight, I look back and I have Abundance before me. I have gold, rubies and diamonds...
Every time I feel dry like a barren land, I draw back and Genius springs before me.
I stick my head in the Land and I draw Oxygen...I draw Force and I draw Power...I draw Energy.
So what limits are you talking about ?
An old Willow that will not bend ? Welcome the weeping Willow.
I welcome the weeping Willow, the black Widow, that lays in me...I embrace her and kiss her. I touch her and hold her up with pride.
Others have done the same...
Our stories are so similar. Our predator is also the same -- no cause for surprise.
You have set no limits, and I have none. Your limits are mine.
How far shall you go, and how far shall I follow ?
How far can you go and far will I allow you ?
Like my forefathers, I stretch the limits... I bring them close like some stifling frontier, or push them far away...I am Queen, King in my homeland. You are not.
You are an unwanted "guest" in my territory.
I have become very territorial by the way, I sniff my territory like some primate...like some animal. An animal true to itself.
I don't really care how long it takes. Time is not measurable in months or years...contrary to what you believe. Time is really immaterial. We have invented Time and we can stop it too...or stretch it to the limits.
We don't go by your calendar either. Days, nights, weeks, months...they flow...
You hold onto them, you try to control Time, Days and Nights, we don't...They serve us. We don't serve them.
My weapons are Patience and Knowledge. Yours is a cheap bullet. There lies all the difference.
I have the Gods, the Spirits and the Ancestors on my side, you have no one...
I have the Book and History on my side, you are just the Wild West...
I am certain of my/our imminent Victory, you are scared...You are forever scared.
Tracked like a wild beast.. You don't trust the "natives" but you were never someone to be trusted...you will always remain scared and this is where my strength lies -- in your Fear.
I have no Fear. I know that Justice and Truth are on my side. I fear not.
I think to myself, how long will it take ? Two, ten, or twenty years ? Does not matter.
The scorched earth is my cover. That earth that you spat, pissed on and desecrated...that poor Earth that swallowed its dead, out of mercy.
The dead...How can I ever forget the dead ?
Merciful, scorched Earth...that took them to her bosom, like some generous Mother...A brown, burnt blanket, but a Mother nonetheless.
Like the millions of mothers you have left with no shelter, begging for a scorched earth to swallow them...And the millions of orphans longing for a lost, swallowed mother...
How can all of this go unaccounted for ? Impossible, simply impossible.
I am Insomnia. I am the wakeful Eye...I will bug you for as long as I am alive.
I will poke you out of your slumber, I will nag you, I will fight you and combat you and I will track you...until...
Until the limits of Insanity...
Yours.
Painting : Iraqi female artist, Nadia Mohammed Yass.
I stretch my left arm and I touch Ishtar,
I stretch my right arm and Hammurabi welcomes me.
What limits are you talking about ?
I draw breath and strength from my roots...
Every time the world shrinks around me, I look back...And my arm longs back 7'000 years...back, ago...
Every time life becomes too tight, I look back and I have Abundance before me. I have gold, rubies and diamonds...
Every time I feel dry like a barren land, I draw back and Genius springs before me.
I stick my head in the Land and I draw Oxygen...I draw Force and I draw Power...I draw Energy.
So what limits are you talking about ?
An old Willow that will not bend ? Welcome the weeping Willow.
I welcome the weeping Willow, the black Widow, that lays in me...I embrace her and kiss her. I touch her and hold her up with pride.
Others have done the same...
Our stories are so similar. Our predator is also the same -- no cause for surprise.
You have set no limits, and I have none. Your limits are mine.
How far shall you go, and how far shall I follow ?
How far can you go and far will I allow you ?
Like my forefathers, I stretch the limits... I bring them close like some stifling frontier, or push them far away...I am Queen, King in my homeland. You are not.
You are an unwanted "guest" in my territory.
I have become very territorial by the way, I sniff my territory like some primate...like some animal. An animal true to itself.
I don't really care how long it takes. Time is not measurable in months or years...contrary to what you believe. Time is really immaterial. We have invented Time and we can stop it too...or stretch it to the limits.
We don't go by your calendar either. Days, nights, weeks, months...they flow...
You hold onto them, you try to control Time, Days and Nights, we don't...They serve us. We don't serve them.
My weapons are Patience and Knowledge. Yours is a cheap bullet. There lies all the difference.
I have the Gods, the Spirits and the Ancestors on my side, you have no one...
I have the Book and History on my side, you are just the Wild West...
I am certain of my/our imminent Victory, you are scared...You are forever scared.
Tracked like a wild beast.. You don't trust the "natives" but you were never someone to be trusted...you will always remain scared and this is where my strength lies -- in your Fear.
I have no Fear. I know that Justice and Truth are on my side. I fear not.
I think to myself, how long will it take ? Two, ten, or twenty years ? Does not matter.
The scorched earth is my cover. That earth that you spat, pissed on and desecrated...that poor Earth that swallowed its dead, out of mercy.
The dead...How can I ever forget the dead ?
Merciful, scorched Earth...that took them to her bosom, like some generous Mother...A brown, burnt blanket, but a Mother nonetheless.
Like the millions of mothers you have left with no shelter, begging for a scorched earth to swallow them...And the millions of orphans longing for a lost, swallowed mother...
How can all of this go unaccounted for ? Impossible, simply impossible.
I am Insomnia. I am the wakeful Eye...I will bug you for as long as I am alive.
I will poke you out of your slumber, I will nag you, I will fight you and combat you and I will track you...until...
Until the limits of Insanity...
Yours.
Painting : Iraqi female artist, Nadia Mohammed Yass.
Comments
Freedom and Justice WILL arrive, of that I am very sure.
Very beautiful artwork, too, Layla. My compliments to the artist, Nadia Mohammed Yass.
Long Live Iraq!
In solidarity.
Yep, Rock on Justice, sooner or later...
Anonymous...
Your cat is a weirdo.
Not really, he's just a talented actor... ;-)
That is probably the most thought provoking post I have read, IMHO. Thankyou.
The West will shortly claim another life, although definitely not by violence. Another Iraqi, who looks back and embraces all around her.
She is our bending willow, our ancestry, and our fighting spirit all rolled into one. A living history book, telling tales of times long past.
She looks back to her youth, and beyond, back thousands of years, and has nothing but love in her heart for those gone before her.She looks forward to joining them once more.
Her one wish is for all Iraqi's to unite as one, United they stand, divided they fall, and are still falling.
"Stand up for what is right, even if you're standing alone." Ephesians 6:10 It's something I try to live by.
And I'd like to confirm to you: Iraqis are truly beautiful, in their homes, in their land, among the most hospitable people in the world; their land is beautiful, despite the destruction meted on it. It is, after all, the Cradle of Civilisation. They have harmed nobody, wished nobody any ill, and this needs to be corrected, in my view. I feel guilty, too, when I refer to Iraqis alone: there's the Palestinians, the Afghanis and the Somalis, among others who suffer terribly as a result of US policy. Is it coincindence that all these people are majority Muslim? I don't think so ... And Islam and Christianity have a lot more in common than some of us really know (or wish to accept). Don't take my word for it - find out.
I wish you well with this truly beautiful transformation - even if you manage to influence a few, you will have done right.
In solidarity, Layla.
That they return the lives of the martyrs they have murdered, first of all President Saddam Hussein, the honour of the women they have raped, the innocence of the children they have scandalized, the health of the people they have tortured, the peace of mind of the people they have traumatized, the harmony of the society they have disgregated, the purity of the sky, water and earth they have polluted, the heritage they have destoyed, and most importantly...the TIME they have made the Iraqis waste on this whole shameful story instead of cultivating virtue and knowledge, advancing on their Arab revolutionary path and savouring the joy of being alive.
In fact, we share a common ancestor: Abraham. And these religious wars go back to the time of the Crusades and beyond. It isn't about religious belief, of course, but that perverse and self-serving instinct in man to cling to his own way as the best, the only, the superior, to be the fierce protector of what he views as "his" - and to try to enforce that on others because he is too insecure to accept differences without feeling threatened, too shallow to practice the deeper concepts of the faith to which he gives lip service, and too eager to aggress, dominate and even shed blood, using a righteous cause for his justification. This is true universally among those who have not found what I can only call "love," but which is not meant to imply spineless jelly, for in the name of that "love" and belief in the great good and in equality for all, one must often take a very unpopular stance, suffer for it and denounce that which is not "love."
It is not the way that will prevail, however. Men are creatures of base instincts and the span of history confirms this again and again except in those rare incidences were a leader was truly peace-loving - not out of weakness but out of a much larger picture of the world as it is and oould be, and the realization that peace can never come by means of war and aggression, and out of genuine concern for his people and not his own political agenda and self-aggrandizement.
It is the misfortune of the Muslim people to live in an area that has access to that commodity for which the world lusts: oil. This is not the case with Palestine, which is a separate issue, but I ask myself all the time why the Palestines have been treated so badly by their would-be allies, the other Arab countries who loudly decry their persecution, but treat them with contempt all the same. No, the Palestinians have stood in the way of the Zionists (which does not describe all Jews, but which taps into the Christian notion that the "holy land" should be occupied by Jews - why? They aren't even Christians, so what are the real motives?). I think we can safely guess.
The complexity of issues in the largely Muslim countries is little understood by the West, including and maybe beginning with the religion, but the reverse is also true. Fighting about it solves absolutely nothing, harms the innocent, exacerbates the problem. I spend whole days grieving and crying over this, but who would know and who would care? I know only that our children deserve to live in peace and safety and it is our responsibility as adults to give them that world and that example.
And, Layla, as you instruct American Woman, so do yourself. If we each do our research, share it with others and make a serious attempt to right wrongs and correct misconceptions, we might make some real headway, who knows? As the words of the song say, "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me." We only have control over ourselves and that is the place to begin.
Thank you for your blog. It is a tool in that direction to which all people of conscience aspire. And as a woman, it touches me deeply in a woman-to-woman way in every aspect: the art, the music and the range of thought and emotion. You are a beautiful soul.
Hello!
How incredibly obnoxious of you to "advise" a person, your country is attacking, to "let peace begin with her".
(I have a feeling this is "american conscience)
And i thought i was the only lesbian here. :)
SaDDam (shadda = double d) NEVER slaughtered innocents.
He did clean Iraq of quite a few enemy agents, conspiratots, sectarians, terrorists, etc. who posed a threat to the country's unity and stability.
Alas ! Too many were spared... And today, courtesy of the unholy trinity US-Israel-Iran, the formerly exiled "opponents" are finally "free"...free to tyrannize over the true innocents, the decent law-abiding Iraqis whom the Martyr President tried so hard to protect.
Over the last 3 days I was visiting a website / forum that goes by the label 'progressive'. Its an American website.
I swear, I believe the ass on a new born pig has more intelligence than what I saw there on that 'prrrrrogressive' website.
Sorry. Couldnt help the rrrrrrr thing. You started it though with grrrrrrreg. :-)
NOW its Obama who's gonna be the savior ! Never mind that the US governemnt just siezed yet another institution here in the US.
Alot of bithchin goin on from different camps and for different reasons but PROOF IS...there is no democracy (power of the people) here in America.
hang tight cuz this is the same shit they seeked to spread in Iraq
see for yerself
the tune in your profile is excellent
that is all :)
They can shackle your hands you shouldn’t complain as your lips are free .speak while your life is still yours free.
They will put you into the dungeons but you shouldn’t complain as your soul is free. Speak; this brief hour is long enough before the death of body and soul.
They will darken your days but you shouldn’t complain cause the truth is light, and it’s free so speak, please speak whatever you must speak.
They will accuse you of insanity you shouldn’t complain insanity has its own sweetness you have to be brave, to ride the wild horses which are insane.
Truth is like a river, will cut a new path whenever it meets an obstacle. The truth confides to you Oh Queen! IT SAYS I SURRENDER PLEASE LET ME FREE.
Hopefully you will find peace amongst all this death and misery inflicted upon innocent Iraqis.
American Conscience
Did I imagine it..or did you make a reference to a variety of
beautiful tangos?
It's just that I can't find
this reference on you blog anymore..
I don't want to think it was just a dream because tango is so exciting and vital
amidst all the death and carnage!
I can't reach you on your more recent blogs.
An admirer.
http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/search?q=tango
Thank you for a beautifully written comment.
American woman,
Another thanks for you and I must admit I am quite taken aback, by your transformation.
Little Deer,
Your love for Iraq and Iraqis is truly heart warming...Bless you.
My condition,
Frankly I feel the same way as you do...I suppose this will mean that forgiveness may take a long time to come...
As'ad Abu Khalil,
I am still waiting for that day. Promises, promises...
Thank you for the long comment you took pains to formulate. I do agree with to a certain extent. You mentioned the Crusades, and when referring to today, you mentioned "a commodity" presumably oil. But during the times of the Crusades there was no oil discovered right ?
And you say fighting is not really the solution...but who is fighting whom here ? And who invaded who ?
I do appreciate your views, but who is the occupier today ?
Best
You may envy my baby, but do you also envy the mother who lost the baby ? Your comment was insensitive to say the least.
Good comment, thank you.
thanks for the laughs...I see that the rrrrrrrrrrr caught on. Maybe you need to practice calling Obama - BOOMA, as of tomorrow.
Cheers.
There are no limits to insanity...except Death.
So you liked something about my blog. That's all I have to say to you :)
Hello Captain, beautiful poetry. Thank you.
Thank you for your kind comment. I will not disappear, not yet anyways...
Thank you, very kind of you.
hey, shall keep you in mind for a future one...How about the Wild West gone Crazy for a title ? ;-)
Wow, thank you, am very flattered. Very kind of you.
and am glad you don't visit that often...
You are correct, there were a series of "tangos", rather macabre ones, adding to the carnage and the death. I opted to take them off the blog. I may republish them one day again, but not for the time being.