Except for This Unseen Thread

Selected Poems. Published in Baghdad in 2006, Falcon with Sun OverheadnbspandnbspThe Age of Entertainmentnbspinspired a new generation of Iraqi poets, charmed by Raads ability to write tender poems in times of destruction and fury. While many of his peers were writing poems about battlefields and faraway exiles, Raad was looking closer in, at the loneliness of those left behind. Hailed for its cinematic portrait of Iraq under sanctionsthe bread queues, busy cemeteries, empty schools, and the impossible departures and returns, Raads work commemorates the wonders of a city staying still, one blink at a time.nbspExcept for This