Al-Mutanabbi street starts here

xiv, 290 p. ; 23 cm

On March 5th, 2007, a car bomb was exploded on al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad — the historic center of Baghdad bookselling — wounding more than 100 people and killing more than 30. This anthology begins with a historical introduction to al-Mutanabbi Street and includes the writing of Iraqis as well as a wide swath of international poets and writers who were outraged by this attack. Exploring the question Where does al-Mutanabbi Street start?, the book looks at both communities and nations, seeking to show the commonality between a small street in Baghdad and other individual cultural centers

Includes bibliographical references

I. The river turned black with ink. The Bookseller’s Story, Ending Much Too Soon / Anthony Shadid — A Man in Love with Knowledge / Mousa al-Naseri — For al-Mutanabbi Street / Naomi Shihab Nye — The Last Word / Deena Metzger — The Grief of Birds / Sam Hamod — Al-Mutanabbi Street / Lutfiya al-Dulaimi — Occident to Orient / Zaid Shlah — Ways to Count the Dead / Persis M. Karim — Al-Mutanabbi Street / Ayub Nuri — Qasida, My Father Spoke at Funerals, Ways to Raise the Dead / Marian Haddad — Girls in Red on Page One / Sarah Browning — Al-Mutanabbi Street / Eileen Grace O’Malley Callahan — Abridged Qasida for al-Mutanabbi Street / Roger Sedarat — Al-Mutanabbi Street / Elline Lipkin — Fragment, in Praise of the Book / Meena Alexander — An Ordinary Bookseller / Esther Kamkar — What Prayer / Robert Perry — Marianne Moore in Baghdad / Gloria Collins — The al-Mutanabbi Street Bombing / Brian Turner — In Perpetuity / Gloria Frym — Against the Weather (for al-Mutanabbi Street) / Owen Hill — Dead Trees / Yassin “The Narcicyst” Alsalman — Elegy for al-Mutanabbi Street / José Luis Gutiérrez — The Letter Has Arrived / Sargon Boulus — Al-Mutanabbi Street / Peter Money — Voices Surround & Fade: The Hooded One / Peter Money — A Letter to al-Mutanabbi / Sinan Antoon — Escape from al-Mutanabbi Street / Muhammad al-Hamrani — into the lizard’s eyes / Lilvia Soto — After Rumi / Janet Sternburg — To Salah al-Hamdani, November, 2008 / Sam Hamill — Thirty Days after Thirty Years / Salah al-Hamdani — Excerpt from Blue / Gail Sher — A half-burned page on al-Mutanabbi Street / Dunya Mikhail — My Days Lack Happiness and I Want You / Irada al-Jabbouri — Remnants / Dilara Cirit — Ashes / Niamh macFhionnlaoich — The Color She Wears / Erica Goss — No Man’s Land / Daisy Zamora — On al-Mutanabbi Street / George Evans — The Friend / Steve Dickison — The River Turned Black with Ink / Maysoon Pachachi —

II. Knowledge is light. Matter and Spirit on al-Mutanabbi Street / Summer Brenner — Untitled / Jen Hofer — Untitled / Rijin Sahakian — Rain Song / Badr Shakir al-Sayyab — The Poet / Jane Hirshfield — “Close to God” / Jack Marshall — A Book in the Hand / Susan Moon — Revolutionary Letter #77 Awkward Song on the Eve of War / Diane di Prima — Al-Mutanabbi Street / Evelyn So — Ethics of Care: The Retreat of al-Mutanabbi / Nahrain al-Mousawi — A Secret Question / Ko Un — The Road to al-Mutanabbi Street / Joe Lamb — Untitled / Katrina Rodabaugh — For I Am a Stranger / Badr Shakir al-Sayyab — Untitled / Mohammed Hayawi — Excerpt from Five Hymns to Pain / Nazik al-Malaika — Al-Mutanabbi Street / Raya Asee — Attention / Saadi Youssef — Destinies / Gazar Hantoosh — A Book of Remedies / Mark Abley — On the Booksellers’ Street of Baghdad / Majid Naficy — Crossroads / Lewis Buzbee — Untitled / Ibn al-Utri — Remembering al-Mutanabbi / Thomas Christensen — On Ashurbanipal’s Library / Amy Gerstler —

III. Gathering the silences. In the Valley of Love / Genny Lim — Night in Hamdan / Saadi Youssef — Burning / Judith Lyn Sutton — Luis and Celso on al-Mutanabbi Street / Josh Kun — Lullaby / Dana Teen Lomax — I Recall al-Sayyab / Mahmoud Darwish — Country of Large Rivers / Etel Adnan — The Murderer / Bushra al-Bustani — Ghazal: Dar al-Harb / Marilyn Hacker — A Home of an al-Mutanabbi Street / Richard Harrison — Proof of Kindness / Fady Joudah — Hearing of Alia Muhammed Baker’s Stroke / Philip Metres — Prayer for the Living / Hayan Charara — Interpenetrate / Annie Finch — The Contract / Kazim Ali — Curves in the Dark / Deema K. Shehabi — The Booksellers of Pansodan / Kenneth Wong — The Proper Purgation / Elmaz Abinader — In the Country of the Dead / Habib Tengour — Adolescence of Burnt Hands / Khaled Mattawa — From Tales of a Severed Head / Rachida Madani — Untitled / Amina Said — What Every Driver Must Know / Alise Alousi — Explosion / Sita Carboni — Letter to My Childhood Friend, the Baghdad Car Bomber / Fran Bourassa — Chrysalis / Jabez W. Churchhill — Al-Mutanabbi Street: Foot Notes after the Fire / Daniela Bouneva Elza — Psalms and Ashes / Linda Norton — Black and Red / Fred Norman — Nazik al-Malaika / Fred Norman — Al-Mutanabbi / Bonnie Nish — random / Bonnie Nish — The Twisted / Janet Rodney — Tonight No Poetry Will Serve / Adrienne Rich — The Blues Sat Down on al-Mutanabbi Street / Cornelius Eady — March 9, 2007 Al-Mutanabbi Street, Baghdad / Julie Bruck — The Secret Carpentry / Kwame Dawes — Blackouts / Raplph Angel — Moth / B.H. Fairchild — Baghdad Callsby / Terese Svoboda — They Didn’t Ask: What’s After Death / Mahmoud Darwish — The Airport of Language / Amir el-Chidiac — Rocks / Aram Saroyan — April Stork / Saadi Youssef — Solos on the Ouds / Saada Youssef — See Them Coming / Sholeh Wolpé — Love Song / Sholeh Wolpé — Until the Glaciers Melt / Sholeh Wolpé — Tonight / Nathalie Handal — One (for al-Mutanabbi Street) / Beau Beausoleil — The Timeless Legacy of al-Mutanabbi Street / Azar Nafisi — The Sudden Cessation of Electricity / Dima Hilal — Market Forces Runon / Tony Kranz — Freedom to Walk / Jordan Elgrably — Untitled / devorah major — Words / Suzy Malcolm — The Last Supper / Ibrahim Nasrallah — The Celebration / Ibrahim Nasrallah — A Special Invitation / Ibrahim Nasrallah — Circle of Prey / Rick London — Its First Smell / Sarah Menefee — Automatize / Roberto Harrison — Verses for Everyday Use / Fadhil al-Azzawi — Paper Elegy / Amaranth Borsuk — 311 and Counting / Lamees al-Ethari — A Very Short Letter / Shaymaʹ al-Saqr — The Street of the Poet / Jim Natal