Poetry from Faleeha Hassan

Young Central Asian woman with a green headscarf and a dark colored blouse and brown hair and eyes.
Faleeha Hassan
The Wagon

So Like a man inured to failure,
We climbed aboard the wagon,
And The driver, only the driver,

Began to listen as the cadence of our deprivation

—Thud. . .. Clunk. . . and so on-
-Infiltrated the wagon’s pores,
Starting with that first dirt road.
Our lives’ parasols disappointed us
When we shared sorrows
Without fancy titles,

while Reaping lethargy and frustration.
It wasn’t only the driver, or The horse, or Our heads

That looked meager;
The wagon’s outlook did too.

Translated by William M. Hutchins

She is a poet, teacher, editor, writer, and playwright born in Najaf, Iraq, in 1967, who now lives in the United States. Faleeha was the first woman to write poetry for children in Iraq.

She received her master's degree in Arabic literature, and has now published 26 books, her poems have been translated into English, Turkmen, Bosnian, Indian, French, Italian, German, Kurdish, Spain, Korean, Greek, Serbia, Albanian, Pakistani, Romanian, Malayalam, Chinese, ODIA, Nepali and Macedonian language. She is the Pulitzer Prize Nomination 2018, PushCart Prize Nomination 2019.
Member of International Writers and Artists Association.

Winner of the Women of Excellence Inspiration award from SJ magazine 2020, Winner of the Grand Jury Award (the Sahitto International Award for Literature 2021) 

One of the Women of Excellence selection committees 2023

Winner of Women In the Arts Award 2023
Member of Who's Who in America 2023
SAHITTO AWARD, JUDGING PANEL 2023
Cultural Ambassador - Iraq, USA
Email : d.fh88@yahoo.com