{"product_id":"9781935514176","title":"Ishtar's Songs","description":"Iraq's poets have suffered imprisonment, exile and death for the truths they have dared to tell. Poetry is not a luxury in Iraq, but a vital part of the struggle for the nation's future. This is poetry that is feared by tyrants and would-be tyrants. \u003cp\u003eDan Veach, poet, founder and editor of The Atlanta Review\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOut of the ashes of decades of war come the voices of those who have survived its stark realties. Ishtar's Songs is filled with hope, bitterness, startling beauty and a love of country that defies the vicissitudes of political, social and military upheaval. The poems are beautifully translated and the vision they project - a vision of a resilient people who have suffered for so long and whose history and culture go back thousands of years - is rendered indelibly fur future generations. Required reading for every American who wishes to grasp the complexities of Iraqi culture. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMike Maggio, poet, author, deMOCKracy \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLittle one flies and then lands. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat about those who are flying all the time?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is what poetry is! . . . \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eImagine heavenly imprints that perish under the heavy attack of senseless forces. Imagine every day hopes that will never share the destiny of the Phoenix to be reborn. \u003cbr\u003eIraqi poetry is like the sun light. Slowly, but surely it warms you up. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSabahudin Hadžialić, poet, translator, editor Diogen pro culture magazine, \u003cbr\u003e Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIraq's painful recent history is vividly personalized in these lyrical poems. \u003cbr\u003eThe love, hope, anger and despair of these poets bear messages we very much need to hear. What burns brightest among these poems is our common humanity. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSam Hamill, poet, founder of Copper Canyon Press and Poets Against War\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat a marvelous compendium of contemporary poetry - a wide spectrum of Iraqi voices sing of tragedy and irony, love and helplessness. Everybody here is out of work, Adil Abdullah complains, asking, What vast shame will touch their souls in the morning \/ when they discover by its light \/ that what they ate yesterday \/ was the flesh of their sons? Ahmed Adam, killed in Baghdad in 2005, laments with bitter irony, I was late twenty years this morning! Baqir Sahib asserts, I have no choice but to be \/ a wolf of words. Striving for some ray of hope, Husein Ali Yunis declares, now all of us are Don Quixotes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese richly diverse poems offer intensely moving, often searing portraits of a legendary culture torn apart by the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, war against Iran and U.S. led invasions. Here is the deep heart and soul of a nation torn asunder yet somehow still observing, striving, celebrating. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDavid Radavich, poet, \u003cbr\u003e author of Middle-East Mezze\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Plain View Press, LLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47040315621616,"sku":"9781935514176","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781935514176_p0.jpg?v=1763656819","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781935514176","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}