Kirjahaku

This book is a short journey into the history of the musical instruments where they were first born in Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization. It is written in a simple language to make it an easy and enjoyable read.

Never before has the human race needed the power of the mind and much more clarity about what is taking place on the world's stage today than this present time. With so many biases leading to extreme polarization, one finds him or herself enticed to enter the boxing ring without due diligence. Social media and globalization, instead of providing a level playing field, added more fuel to the fire. Even "learned" individuals have adopted a defensive and reactive approach instead of a conducive and proactive approach. In this collection, the readers will find no specific themes. The pieces were written in real time as events were unfolding, thus being listed in a chronological order by date. While most of these reflections were written in the last couple of years, the thought process encompassed prior experiences that were triggered by recent events.

This is the first original book of (Raweh) poetry resembling Haiku in Assyrian? Aramaic language. It addressed all aspects of life with as reflected upon by the author. Raweh is form of a sung poetry. The entire poem is one stanza of three lines, each line must be completed in 7 syllables only. There are very few documented data and publications about Raweh. The Assyrians in the Mountains of Hakkari would get together and recite each stanza in a strong mountaineer voice with no music. Topics were about war and love. This form of poetry goes back for decades although we do not know the exact timing. The only other nation that share this kind of poetry that is very close to Raweh is Japan (Haiku), which also comes in 3 lines but 5,7,5 syllables in each stanza. I always wonder if there is any link between the two nations through this kind of poetry. This is my humble attempt to preserve and revive this form of poetry, expanding it into areas not cited before such as social sciences, nature, economy, science, history, religion, and politics.