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    Swimming in the Desert: The Uncensored Poetry of a Saudi Social Activist
    Swimming in the Desert: The Uncensored Poetry of a Saudi Social Activist
    Swimming in the Desert: The Uncensored Poetry of a Saudi Social Activist
    Ebook153 pages53 minutes

    Swimming in the Desert: The Uncensored Poetry of a Saudi Social Activist

    By Lama Feher AlGhalib

    ()

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    About this ebook

    This volume of poetry is essentially the everyday thoughts of a young Saudi Muslim female. It captures her struggle to cope with her surroundings and the emotional weakness in each human being that is manifested in the form of love, hope, and vision, coupled with a sense of confusion, despair, and enmity.
    Her political culture differs from those around her; her liberal, utopian mindset is adjusting to the realism of the world as she attempts to swim in a dry desert. For, she is from land that is surrounded by turmoil. She adheres to a religion whose people are antagonized. She lives in a world of wealth where still millions are dying of malnutrition. Yet, her liberal voice surfaces, and her verses echo within the chambers of her mind.
    Explore her thoughts and study her anatomy by reading Swimming in the Desert, and you will tap into her motivation as a social activist; her pensive thoughts on identity, childhood, and sentiment; her feelings about love and romance; and, more important, her views on her culture, the current global turmoil, and this eras morality.
    Delve into a world of universal thoughts through an endless journey of exploration.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse UK
    Release dateJan 20, 2014
    ISBN9781491887899
    Swimming in the Desert: The Uncensored Poetry of a Saudi Social Activist

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      Book preview

      Swimming in the Desert - Lama Feher AlGhalib

      AuthorHouse™ UK Ltd.

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403 USA

      www.authorhouse.co.uk

      Phone: 0800.197.4150

      © 2014 Lama Feher AlGhalib. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      Published by AuthorHouse 01/15/2014

      ISBN: 978-1-4918-8788-2 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4918-8789-9 (e)

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Contents

      CHAPTER 1: ON IDENTITY

      1.1 Exploration

      Hello, Pen

      The Beginning

      I Don’t Know Yet

      Stronger

      Twenty Years Old

      Raised by Men

      Amorphous Being

      My Inevitable Fate

      Nothing

      False Identity

      Little Miss Goody Two-Shoes

      I Hate the Recognition

      Replaceable

      Ignore Your Emotions?

      I Live for a Reason

      1.2 Purpose

      Acceptance

      Life’s Effect on You

      Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way

      Dreamy Star

      Calling Out

      Graduated

      1.3 Poetry

      The World of Words

      So What, I’m a Poet!

      Poetry Today

      Poetic Lapse

      Documentation

      Poet Dissected

      I Wish

      CHAPTER 2: ON LIFE

      2.1 Childhood

      Bees That Cannot Sting

      Just Yesterday

      Denial

      The Day I Grew Up

      2.2 Love

      An Amateur in Love

      Dear Awaited

      My He to Be

      The Shield

      Emotionless Chamber Invaded

      Marriage

      2.3 People

      How Did He Who Is Wise Become So?

      The Apple of My Eye

      What Friends Are For

      Everyone Has a Story

      2.4 Motherhood

      A Maternal Bond

      In My Womb

      Dear Daughter of Mine

      Good Morning, Maarya

      After Birth

      2.5 Restlessness

      On the Brink of Breaking Down

      How Could Anyone Not Sleep?

      Blacked Out

      Chaotic Mind

      Restless

      A Soldier’s Rest

      2.6 Miscellaneous

      Leisure Time

      The Squirrel and the Shrub

      I Conquered You

      Mona Lisa

      Tiger’s Eyes

      Tears

      CHAPTER 3: ON SOCIETY

      3.1 Culture

      A Plant in a Pot and a

      Waterfall in a Fountain

      Truthful Scripture

      The Death of Hearts and of the Arts

      You Say Bedouin Like It’s a Bad Thing

      Culture vs. Religion

      A Saudi Man

      3.2 Global Turmoil

      A Message from a Tribal Girl

      Penguins Aligned in Protest

      Violated, yet Undefeated

      Twisted Game

      Don’t Label Me

      Peace

      The Gaza Kids in the Saudi Hospital

      Moment of Sobriety

      Avoiding Repetitions

      The Twenty-First Century

      The Ugly, Hidden Truth

      Echo Chamber

      3.3 Morality

      Helpless

      In My Prayer

      Angry at the Night

      Envy

      The Destruction of Masculinity

      Secondhand Smoke

      Shallow

      Crying Out

      About the Author

      About the Book

      chapter1.jpg10exploration.jpg

      Hello, Pen

      I surrender to your scripture;

      I surrender to your might.

      Now show me what I need to know—

      Tell me of my unknown plight.

      Speak to me as though you’re real,

      As though you’re sitting here beside me.

      Console me and give me strength

      To face this world hospitably.

      Speak my mind when I cannot.

      Share my secrets with this world.

      Tell them that I’m not just

      A really, really troubled girl.

      My fingers hold this pen.

      They move to write.

      They have life within them.

      They remind me: I’m alive.

      The Beginning

      —upon my being asked why the words The Beginning appeared on the last page of my first volume of poetry

      How shalt thou end with the beginning?

      The last page mustn’t always be the end,

      For when it comes to being an amateur,

      Heaves of paper always do transcend…

      Seventeen, with much luck in store for me,

      Looking upon the farthest star:

      I’m yet to live and love and laugh,

      But all my dreams just seem too far…

      I wish to reach them, I really do,

      To be all that I can be.

      But with such dreams as mine,

      Is that even a possibility?

      Well, this is just the beginning,

      So I suppose we’ll wait and see.

      I Don’t Know Yet

      Why do I think I know

      Much more than I know I know?

      Why do I think that there’s depth

      Beneath everything that’s shallow?

      Why does watching the sunset

      Make me

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