From the heart of Baghdad, where the Tigris and Euphrates whisper the memory of civilizations and poetry flows as the breath of the land, arises Karim Katea Abdullah Al-Akeili, known to the literary world as Karim Abdullah — a poet, novelist, critic, playwright, and one of Iraq’s most profound contemporary voices. His words exist not merely as expression, but as testimony — a living dialogue between language, psychology, and the soul’s eternal yearning.
A member of the General Union of Writers and Authors in Iraq, Karim Abdullah stands as one of the most versatile figures in Middle Eastern literature today. Holding a Diploma in Public Health and certification in Psychological Rehabilitation Therapy, he has woven his medical and psychological understanding into a vast literary universe where art and empathy meet. His psychodramatic plays, novels, poetry, and critical works all pulse with the same deep awareness — that human experience is both wound and cure.
Among his celebrated poetry collections are Love and Myth, Love in a Time of Exile, Gray Pain and the Palm of a Virgin, Baghdad in its New Guise, and Pictures of You Bathing Naked Behind Velvet Curtains. His fiction, including Betrayal in the Circles of the Mind and What Sisyphus Didn’t Say in His Crazy Memoirs, reveals a psychological and philosophical inquiry into the labyrinth of being. As a playwright, he pioneered psychodrama in Iraq through productions such as Schizophrenia, A Human Tale, and Memoirs of a Retired Man, transforming the stage into a place of introspection and healing. His critical writings — such as The Aesthetics of the Female Voice in the Expressive Narrative Poem — explore the living relationship between word and consciousness.
Water: The First Hymn of Being
In his visual-poetic work “Water: The First Hymn of Being,” Karim Abdullah transforms verse into a cosmic act of remembrance — the return to origin, the first vibration of creation before time began.
In the beginning, water was the gasp of creation,
the flicker of light in the eyelid of nothingness.
Here, water is not mere matter — it is memory itself, the sacred pulse between form and formlessness. Through its shifting states — cloud, rain, river, sea — Karim evokes the metamorphosis of being. Water becomes the mirror of God, the voice of clay, and the lover that never leaves, even as it changes its shape to surprise us.
For Karim, water is the first consciousness — the medium through which existence learns to breathe. It is the transparent homeland, unconfined and pure, yet capable of becoming both blood when life is taken and milk when life begins. In its justice and fluidity lies the poet’s highest vision: that all creation, like water, is equal, sacred, and one.
He reminds us:
“Beware of the drought hidden in the words of tyrants.
When the river dies, poems crack, and love migrates from the palms of women.”
Through such verses, Karim’s poetry becomes both hymn and warning — a meditation on life’s fragility and its infinite renewal.
A Universal Voice of Spirit and Reflection
Translated into more than a dozen languages — from English and Spanish to French, Greek, Persian, and Hindi — Karim Abdullah’s works transcend geography and faith, reaching readers across continents. His influence extends beyond literature into psychology, philosophy, and theatre, reflecting his belief that art must engage the deepest questions of being.
Through “Water: The First Hymn of Being,” he offers not only a poetic meditation, but a sacred mirror: a reminder that we, too, are made of the river — moving, reflecting, and remembering.