Kisses Of Grattitude On Hands Of My Good Teachers Poem by nadia abduljabbar

Kisses of gratitude on
The hands of all my good
Teachers, who taught me
How to analyze;
How to read
Between the lines.
Those who gave me from
The juice
Of their minds.

Those who felt
My sensitivity and innocence,
Before anybody else,
Hence,
Captured the opportunity
To train me how to try
To understand people
From their eye gaze,
Voice tone,
They did so in hope that
They might protect
Me from cunningness.

Yet who could protect the fearless,
Dashing young woman from Makkah,
Who loved English poetry;
Blake, Coleridge Shakespeare,
And Keats. Who loved dancing
Belly dance, Indian dance and Ballet,
Panting as well as classical music
Books, songs and cats.

Whose naïve dream was like
That of a green child; it was not
To be confined by the boundaries
Of her homeland; to marry
A foreign man who could make
Her happy and merry,
Who could give her intellectual
Friendship and company
In foreign far away land.

The price paid was so high,
And severely cried I
When I remember the pains
I passed through as when Fatmah
Cried out of her fear for me;
From my immaturity,
Without a model
Before me to follow,
That could guide me,
when she remembered me in USA,
So I was told by a colleague; Elham Jan;
Later we became
Friends, Fatmah’s
Love united us.

Sometimes we forget that
The price of mellowness is so high.
Once I rang Fatmah in Egypt,
I said: “I am alone but not lonely, ”
She replied: “ Inner richness.”

Such a comment is never heard
In my homeland; here people try
Their best to make you feel inferior
Just because you were brave enough
To divorce or rather say no
To a man; you see
Independence for a woman, is a crime.

To all of these people who
Cared to bring the best of me
Out to the surface; to flourish in life;
Those who encouraged and tried to
Protect me; those who listened
To me in pain; to my complaints:

Whether dead,
Or alive, their efforts in building
My confidence and my mind;
And all their goodness will
Never be forgotten; will always be
Appreciated until We
Hopefully meet in PARADISE.