No. 25
[Amulets Like Green Fields]
glowing turquoise
color
a warm
glowing red
an aerial view
of the green fields
of Mesopotamia
almost symmetrically
arranged
like 4 squares
with rounded off
corners
What I see crossing it
Are pathways of a dream
What I see in it
is a building
its red roof
seen from the sky
in which the bombers
were for a moment
the building is a square
with rounded off
corners
standing
on one
corner
a stop sign
with magic
Chinese characters
flashing up
in turquoise
green
framed by a
blue ditch
It is a mysterious
stop sign
saying stop for
a minute
stop and think about
your native place
your loved fields
your fields that are
now poisoned
by the iron oxide
of the iron
the copper oxide
of the copper
of so many bombs
so much ammunition
rotting
in the swamps
the vast Basra
marshes
that encircle
the fields
of the farms
Native place
loved place
you are like
an amulet
worn by the
women of
Mesopotamia
4000 years ago
5000 years ago
above you
hovers
the sickle of the
moon
the painter has
given the golden trace
of his
delicately drawn
line to it
the sickle
rests above
the fields
in the sky of
Iraq
It rests
at night
peacefully
and eternally
it shines on all
women on all men
on all children
and the night
is dark and blue
and like the
world of our
dreams it rests
and
engulfs
and bewitches
and comforts us
and in it
not only
the memory of
the fields
appears
the red roof of the
house
that is burned now
but I see
the stylized
horns
of the ox
the ox the farmer
uses to
plough his fields
It is decorated
with amulets
it is decorated
with mysterious
spots
bluish turquoise spots
4 on the left horn
3 on the right
and they are
to keep
the bad looks
away
from Haddad
Maurice’s
native village
from his farm
from the land
of Mesopotamia
and its people
the common people
he loves so much
Haddad
Maurice
has told me
he has painted
an amulet
the traditional
amulet the
women of Iraq
wear
the peasant women
the women of
the countryside
poor + superstitious
women you may claim
But he has done much
more than that
he painted a dream
No. 4
[Palms of Arabia, Wet Fields of Iraq]
A water color
painting today
seems to be
a very traditional
thing - epigonic
almost. We all know
it is hard to surpass
Turner, for instance
Or Nolde
But I’ve seen
Water color paintings in
Taiwan
that brought out
in a way
a Chinese
atmosphere
a Chinese
mood
vis à vis
a rather
Chinese reality
A Chinese
way of observing
and a Chinese love
for life
I sense the same
in this painting
the rain clouds
heavy above
the rice fields
above the
marsh lands
The palms
of Arabia
The brown knees
And face of a peasant
briskly
stepping
thru the mud
trailed by the
tranquil oxen
huang niu
the Chinese
would have
called it
sui niu
water buffalo
In the background
peacefully
two water buffalos
bow their head
or push it forward
eyeing boats
on the water
Curiously!
while a third
uses all of
his energy
to draw its
hind legs
from the
mud
and make it
to higher ground
The colors are
delicate in
this painting
they are serene
they breathe peace
or a quest for
peace
a longing
for what
has been lost
No. 11
[Hammurabi Gives the Scrolls
To the king]
At a time
I cared most for Léger
His builders
His scaffoldings
His joy d’ vivre
of a productive
working class
today
I’ve encountered
another
builder
another constructeur
a man
who is a peasant
who constructs
from the traces
and dreams
of the past
the shards of
the past
our fragmented
knowledge
of the past
that the archeologists
dug out
in his father’s
backyard
because the peasants
told them
of their discoveries
in that backyard
Shards
Shards
writings
images
dreams
stories
carried over into the
folk art
of the peasants
the amulets
of their women
Haddad Maurice
is no folk artists
He is an artist
connected with the
memory of the folks
in the villages
the memories
of his
own kind
Of the
Peasants
the peasants
of Basra
the land
between the rivers
the fields engulfed
by the marshes
created
by the rivers
But in the
North
also in the
country between
the rivers
they built from
the mud
transported by the
rivers
they made bricks
from it
they found stones
in it
and so, we see
here
the tower
constructed
the platform
of the law giver
of the culture
bringer
facing the king
as his adviser
It is a world
of secrets
packed in boxes
a world of
papier-mâché
and
bearded men
a world
with the blood red
writing on the
wall
No. 12
[Yellow Like
Ripe Wheat]
Chinese
stamps
Sumerian
stone plates
symmetric fields
of Iraq
an abstract painting
constructed
from patches
of yellow squares
ochre squares
a near circular
yellow shape
holding inside it
the red shape
of a chameleon
a human being
Wherever you look
you see the traces
of writing
Sumerian writing
the heritage
of the land
but the cow
the horned bull
half hidden
by the
plates
by the writing
turns its head
and looks
backward
vital tender
watchful
full of sadness
as it eyes us
our world lost
a world kept alive
by the painter
world of dust and wheat
sand and shards
world
Yellow Like
Ripe Wheat
No.22
[Again the Sickle, Again the Star]
Again
the sickle
again
the star
golden star
golden trace
in the night
your line
frames the universe
a world traversed by
a boat pushed
thru history
a boat
made of
papyrus
a fragile boat
with the mythical
King of dreams
carried by it
he is propelling it ahead
using his pole
thrusting the pole
into the marshy
water-covered
earth
the king wears
a cap
the cap
is a golden
moon
another sickle
in the world of man
a symbol
of transcendence
immersed
within immanence
reduplicating
the far sickle
in the sky
confronting
the rower
the traverser
of the sea of life
is a dancer
is a woman
is a magical
woman
a witch woman
a dream woman
a sacred woman
a real woman
a figure from
far away
from the times
sunk in the
past
in the beginnings
not of
mankind
but of culture
as we remember it
The human universe
is that woman
the human
universe is
that man
it is the dancer
it is the wise
man
the giver of
the law
morality
ethics
the connection
with
the sky
its stars its laws
and the calculations thereof
In Haddad Maurice’s
work
this universe
of woman
and man
of the culture bringer
and the bringer of joy
music + dance
swings like a
baby in the
fluid of the uterus
in the
streams
running on
forever
as / with
silvery scales in the darkness
the fish flit
I love you
little fish
I love you
Although the
Americans
have
poisoned you
with their bombs
No. 21
[Freezes]
Looking at
the freezes
three bands of
freezes
one on top of the other
is it that I
am reminded of Greece
is it that
I am reminded
of Egypt?
No
It is another
land
another culture
Agrarian
Rooted in
the soil
in the clay
and sand
the mud made up of the
water
and earth
of Mesopotamia
Geometric
shapes frame
the freezes
Yellow color
of the
papyrus flower
how cool and
comforting
how beautiful you are
Bluish
green
copper oxide
mixed by the artist
how dreamlike
and transcendent
and serene
you are
Clay color
ochre color
of the freezes
mixed with
copper oxide
turquoise
how
dusty
how misty
how earthy
you are
In it
movements
catch the eyes
the movements
of human
creatures
of animal
creatures
of warm and alive
creatures
of creatures
as old and
elementary
as the
rivers of Iraq
as eternal
and contemporary
as
the peasants
of Iraq
I’ve seen
the women
sitting there
weaving
I’ve seen
the scribes
writing
I’ve seen
the shepherds
among the rams
and sheep
I’ve seen the
Horse
among the servants
and king
But perhaps
the king
was no king
it was
a law giver
a wise man
a white-haired
peasant
breaking the stones
of his land
and writing with them
on the stones
of his land
the hewn stones
of his land
The Freeze
the three freezes
I imagine
on stone tablets
from ancient
Sumer
And the artist
the peasant artist
the artist peasant
has discovered them
again
in a dream
in a moment of history
so he painted that history
that moment of
remembrance
No. 14
(An Arab Lissitsky)
Do you
know works by
Lissitsky?
El Lissitsky?
The constructivist
Lissitsky?
Here is
An Arab
Constructivist
An Iraqi
Constructivist
a peasant
constructivist
he dreams up
the geometry
of his fields
he reflects
the geometry of
irrigation
ditches
he puts across it
the geometry
of Arab
calligraphy!
Of letters!
He used
A bright
vermilion red
A stark
charcoal black
some ochre tones
to create
a dynamic structure
A Lissitsky
Structure
An abstract
Arab
Lissitsky
Structure
That is rooted
In the land
- and in
history
Haddad
Maurice
is rooted
in history
consciously
unconsciously
he is
rooted in
history
where the old gods
of Sumeria
the fields the letters
the cuneiform script
of the past
make their
reappearance
in glowing
colors
full of joy
of love
for life
No. 27
[Like a Light Out of Darkness]
the light bright shape
protruding into
the dark
like a comet, it is
flashing up
in the night
I see a fish
diving down
into the deep
of the muddy river
I see
a bomb
tearing apart
the darkness of
the sky
Like lightning
flashing
Like lightning
flashing
I see the history
Of a land
The marshes
Mesopotamia
Cut up
And put together
Again
The elements dug out
from the depth
of the past
And reshuffled
And recreated
Here it is -
Sumeria -
that old culture
hidden in the
soil of the farm
hidden next to
the farm house
where so many
archeologists lived
put up hospitably
by Haddad Maurice’s
father
Englishmen?
Frenchmen?
Germans?
Americans?
Today they repay him
With bombs
No – not they:
Their children
or the superiors
of their children
The rulers
Mesopotamia’s
rulers vanished
in the dark of
history
but the invention
of the concept
of degrees, 360
degrees to a full
circle, remains
And the
Theorem of
Pythagoras
Remains
Dug out from the
soil of Sumeria
Twice as ancient
as Pythagoras
The Greek
And the words
remain
Words from Sumer
representing
a social reality
representing
a human being
living flesh
FISHERMAN
it says
in Sumerian
PEASANT
I’m a peasant, too,
Haddad Maurice says
In the dark
there lights up
the bright shape
wearing the dark
marks of history
black + red
and ochre
In the geometrical
shape representing
the concept of 360
degrees
lights up
the bright red
of Iraq’s earth
the charcoal
dark
of burned palm trees
darkens the sky
the night
engulfs us
The black clouds -
Drifting past from
the burning oilfields
For a moment the day has turned
as dark as a well
But within it, hidden
in the forgetfulness of man
Hidden
in the charitable heart
Fruitful like the soil of the land
A memory surfaces
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