Renowned Iraqi Poet Ammara dies in exile at 92

Women‌‌ 02:31 PM - 2021-06-18

.

The renowned Iraqi poet, Lamia Abbas Ammara, died in exile on Friday at the age of 92, after a struggle with illness.

 

She died in a hospital in the United States.

 

The President of the Republic of Iraq, Dr. Barham Salih, mourned the death of the poet Lamia Abbas and said in a tweet on Twitter: "We bid farewell to the great poet Lamia Abbas Ammara in her exile and we bid farewell to more than five decades of making beauty."

 

"The late poet planted poems, literary creativity, and patriotic stances in our memory, as Ammara constituted a milestone in Iraqi culture, in both colloquial and classical. We ask God's forgiveness for her soul and patience for her generous family and her fans."

 

The poet Lamia Abbas Ammara was born in 1929 to a respected well-known family in Baghdad, where her uncle was the famous Iraqi silversmith Zahron Amara. Her family's religion was an Iraqi Sabean-Mandaean in the Al-Kuraimat area, an area located in the heart of the capital Baghdad.

 

Her nickname Ammara came from the city of Amarah, the capital of Maysan Governorate in southern Iraq, the birthplace of her father.

 

The poet began writing poetry early in her life. She began when she was only twelve years of age.

 

She studied at the Senior Teachers' House - Faculty of Arts - and it happened that many poets met in those years in that institute, al-Sayyab, al-Bayati, al-Issa, Abdul Razzaq Abdul Wahid, and others competition between them was intense, which resulted in the birth of free poetry.  

 

Her most prominent collections of poetry are: The Empty Corner 1960, The Return of Spring 1963, Ashtar Songs 1969, They Call It Love 1972, The Last Dimension 1988, and Iraqi... and many others.

 

 

 

PUKmedia